Workplace Bullying & Harassment

It’s helpful to start with the basics. Bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at you or a group that creates a risk to your health and safety—whether physical or psychological. Harassment, on the other hand, is behaviour that’s belittling, threatening or offensive, and leaves you feeling humiliated or intimidated. A one-off rude comment usually isn’t bullying, but it’s still worth addressing before it gets worse.

Bullying can come from anyone: colleagues at the same level, managers above you, or even contractors, clients or visitors. It might be verbal abuse (shouting, swearing), psychological tactics (public humiliation, intimidation, spreading nasty rumours), or social exclusion (deliberately leaving you out or undermining your work). Anything that makes the workplace hostile counts, including physical threats.

Under the Human Rights Act 1993, you’re protected from harassment linked to certain personal characteristics. That includes sexual harassment—any unwelcome sexual behaviour that’s repeated or serious enough to harm you. Racial harassment is also covered: language or actions showing hostility or contempt because of your race, colour, or ethnic or national origins. The same protection applies to harassment based on gender, disability, sexual orientation and other grounds listed in the Act.

Start by keeping a clear record of everything. Note down the date, time and place, exactly what was said or done, and who else was there. Save any emails, texts or messages. This paperwork is vital if you need to make a formal complaint later. Once you’ve done that, dig out your workplace policies on bullying, harassment and discrimination—usually in your staff handbook—so you know the proper steps.

Yes, if you feel safe doing so. You could speak directly to the person involved, or raise it straight away with your manager or HR. If you do have a conversation, follow it up with a quick email summarising what was said—just to keep a written trail. If the informal route doesn’t work, or the behaviour is too serious for that approach, you can move to a formal written complaint setting out what’s happened and how it’s affecting you.

You’re entitled to a workplace free from bullying and harassment, and any investigation must be confidential and impartial. You can bring a support person, union rep or lawyer to meetings, and you can get help from HR, your union or external services like EAP counselling. Your employer has to follow fair procedures and, crucially, must protect you from any retaliation for speaking up.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, your employer must do everything reasonably practicable to keep you safe—including from psychological harm. That means having clear policies everyone knows about, spotting risks early, and dealing with complaints quickly, fairly and thoroughly. If they don’t, they can face hefty fines.

You’ve got options. Employment New Zealand offers free mediation to help sort things out together. If the harassment is based on protected grounds (race, gender, etc.), you can complain to the Human Rights Commission. For unjustified disadvantage or dismissal caused by bullying, you can raise a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act 2000 and, if needed, take it to the Employment Relations Authority. If there’s physical harm or threats, call the Police.

Time limits are tight, so don’t delay. For most personal grievances under the Employment Relations Act 2000 linked to bullying, you have 90 days from the incident (or when you found out about it). The one exception is sexual harassment, where you get 12 months to raise the grievance.

No, you generally have to pick one path. If you raise a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act 2000 (which can cover sexual and racial harassment), you can’t run the same complaint through the Human Rights Commission at the same time. The law doesn’t allow you to use both systems for the identical issue.