The bullying provisions in the Fair Work Act apply to workers
who believe they have been bullied at work however, since the
introduction of the bullying provisions at the beginning of last
year, a point of frustration for many of my HR clients has been the
lack of clarity surrounding the definition of "at work".
It is for that reason I was pleased to see that the Fair Work
Commission has recently provided some clarity regarding the
definition, which I am now excited to share!
A five member bench of the Fair Work Commission has held that
"at work" means "both the performance of work
(at any time or location) and when the worker is engaged in some
other activity which is authorised or permitted by the employer, or
in the case of a contractor their principal (such as being on a
meal break or accessing social media while performing
work)".
