Call to halve ‘rife’ public sector bullying and harassment
One of Australia’s most respected former public servants says all public services should establish a target to cut bullying and harassment by half within five years, with all senior managers compelled to undertake 360-degree reviews and be denied promotion if they fail to change offending behaviours.
Gordon De Brouwer, national president of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, said public servant surveys across all jurisdictions showed that bullying and harassment were “rife”.
Gordon De Brouwer: “It’s a bit like the behaviour of the embarrassing sibling – keep it in the family because it’s something you’re ashamed of.”
Such behaviour was more widespread than suggested by proven codes of conduct breaches or workers’ compensation claims, and surveys showed widespread reluctance to report it.
“In the Australian Public Service, for example, at most only one public servant in every 1500 has a code of conduct finding against them for bullying or harassment. But almost one public servant in five says they have been, or may have been, bullied or harassed in the past year,” Dr De Brouwer said.
Dr De Brouwer is a former senior federal department secretary and member of the 2019 Thodey review into the Australian Public Service. The IPAA is the leading public sector professional body.
Dr De Brouwer called for proposed protections for federal parliamentary and ministerial staff against bullying, sexual harassment and abuse to be extended to departmental officers serving in Parliament House.
“Some staff have behaved this way to other staffers, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they’re also behaving that way to public servants,” he told The Australian Financial Review. Many mid-level public servants work in ministerial offices to gain first-hand experience in executive government.
In the latest federal data, for 2020-21, the Department of Home Affairs has the highest number of recorded incidents, with 23 per cent of staff reporting they had or may have been bullied. This compares with an average of 18 per cent across the federal public service. Home Affairs was also the worst-performing department the previous year.
Dr De Brouwer said the surveys showing nearly one in five stated they had been or may have been subjected to bullying were a “warning sign”.
“Public service commissions do meet, and they do talk about these things, but they don’t do a lot publicly about it,” he said.
“It’s like a private conversation, a bit like the behaviour of the embarrassing sibling – keep it in the family because it’s something you’re ashamed of.
“That behaviour just perpetuates bad behaviour, it doesn’t reverse it.”
He called for a series of actions to remedy the high prevalence of bullying and harassment.
“By committing to at least halve rates of bullying within five years, public service commissions would signal they are serious about improving behaviour and attracting new talent.”
He called for agencies to establish an independent person or entity to enable public servants to report harassment, after the surveys showed officials feared reprisals if they reported bullying.
Dr De Brouwer said employees should be able to report outside the normal institutional hierarchy. He also called on public service commissions to inquire into agencies consistently above the average.
“Unless the system applies to everyone, it won’t be effective.”
He said 360-degree performance reviews should be for all managers, with explicit ratings for bullying and harassment outcomes they achieved and how those outcomes were achieved.
“People who perform poorly in how they achieve outcomes should be denied promotion.”
It was important to follow through with rewards and sanctions. “When public servants see people who systematically behave badly not being promoted, getting demoted or losing their job, behaviour will change.”
Better reporting would also lead to change, he said.
“Being clear about which institutions are behind and how they can change, and providing public analysis, will have impact.”
Employee census data is collected at agency level but is not aggregated into public reports and dashboards to enable proper analysis.
“The [Australian Public Service Commission] now provides the [bullying and harassment] data on agencies, but it doesn’t collect them and collate it,” Dr De Brouwer said.
According to the APSC, the most common reported form of bullying and harassment at the federal level is verbal abuse, such as offensive language, derogatory remarks, being ignored, and shouting.
This is followed by interference in work tasks, such as withholding needed information, undermining or sabotage.
The third most common form is the unfair application of work policies or rules, such as performance management and access to leave or training.
Nearly 60 per cent of 2021 APS employee census respondents who had perceived harassment or bullying in their workplace did not report their experiences.
The most common reason cited was that they did not think any action would be taken. Forty-three per cent said they did not report because it might affect their career.
While the percentage of federal employees who say they have been subjected to bullying and harassment has been slowly falling, the number of employees reporting harassment has risen from 422 in 2018-19 to 588 in 2020-21. The number of complaints of sexual harassment more than doubled from 32 to 78 since last financial year.
“There is no doubt that more work is also required to improve the reporting culture around harassment and bullying,” the APSC said in its latest census report.
“Further work is needed to create a culture where those targeted feel comfortable to report and confident that swift action will be taken; a culture where bystanders also call out inappropriate behaviours so they can be addressed.”