Mitigating risks of psychosocial hazards in the workplace – lessons for employers

Recently, a company in WA terminated an employee’s employment after the employee accused a co-worker of sucking up to the boss, using sexually explicit language and making accompanying offensive hand gestures.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) President found that the dismissed employee had breached four of the company’s workplace behavioural and psychosocial safety policies and therefore the dismissal was valid. However, the FWC President also believed that the termination should have been overturned as there was no training that accompanied the policy implementation.  He purported that if the employee had been properly trained on the "what" and "why" of acceptable workplace conduct, the incident that led to the termination would have likely been avoided.  The employee reiterated he was unaware of any company policies related to these breaches.

It was concluded that the company’s process for disseminating new policies had the ‘hallmarks of a tick and flick exercise as was the very brief training that had been undertaken'. The FWC President went on to add that while the termination was valid, the actual dismissal was harsh and unjust after taking into account 'what may have happened if the [worker] had been properly trained in acceptable workplace behaviours'. There are still ongoing negotiations as to whether the dismissed employee should be compensated or reinstated.

We encourage all businesses to implement a Workplace Behaviour Policy that outlines inappropriate and unlawful behaviour and includes a psychosocial component that complies with the recent updated legislation. Furthermore, we encourage comprehensive training across the business, so all employees are aware of the expected standards of behaviour and the consequences of not meeting those expectations.