Time’s up for workplace bullying

Bullying and harassment aren’t rites of passage. They’re not just personality clashes or professional “feedback”. They are serious work health and safety (WHS) risks, and they are unlawful under Western Australian law.

Thanks to the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), every employer in the health system now has a clear, legal responsibility to prevent bullying and harassment – not just to react once it’s reported. It’s called a positive duty, and it means hospitals and health services must actively identify risks to both physical and psychological health, then take steps to eliminate or minimise those risks.

This includes behaviours like verbal abuse, humiliation, exclusion, intimidation, and misuse of power. When left unchecked, they cause serious harm – not just to individual doctors, but to entire teams, hospital culture, and ultimately to patients.

What is workplace bullying?

Workplace bullying is defined by Safe Work Australia as repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. It isn’t always obvious. It’s not just shouting or public humiliation. Bullying in health settings is often subtle, targeted and institutional.

It can look like being belittled on ward rounds. Being repeatedly excluded from clinical discussions or teaching. Having your concerns ignored, your overtime unapproved, or your leave requests mysteriously rejected. Being rostered unfairly, given undesirable shifts, or punished with excessive night shifts. Or being pressured not to claim penalties or overtime, and told you’re “not a team player” if you insist on being paid what you’re owed.

It can also look like being worked beyond capacity. Unreasonable workloads with unachievable expectations where fatigue, understaffing or excessive hours create burnout. Under the WHS Act, they are recognised psychosocial hazards that employers have a legal duty to control.

Sexual harassment remains far too common in healthcare settings. Regardless of who is responsible (colleagues or patients), your employer has a legal duty to protect you. Whether it’s inappropriate comments, unwanted advances, or sexualised jokes and behaviour, these actions are not only unacceptable, they are also a breach of safety laws.

According to the 2025 AMA Hospital Health Check (HHC):

• • 30% of doctors in training (DiTs) experienced bullying, discrimination, or sexual harassment;
  • 44% said they had witnessed it happening; and
  • 34% feared negative consequences for reporting inappropriate behaviour.

That’s one in three doctors too scared to speak up about harm at work. This is not just a cultural problem, it’s a WHS crisis.

The legal duty to act

Under Section 19 of the WHS Act, all persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs), including WA Health and private hospitals, have a positive duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers.

This includes preventing psychological harm. Employers must identify hazards, assess risks and put controls in place before harm occurs, and not wait for a complaint or a crisis.

The Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA) reinforce this duty, formally recognising psychosocial hazards like bullying, harassment, excessive workloads and poor supervision as serious risks that must be managed.

This is not optional. If an employer knows, or should know, that bullying is occurring and does nothing to stop it, they are in breach of the law.

What this looks like in practice

Complying with the WHS Act doesn’t mean having a policy in a drawer. It means genuine, ongoing action; providing accessible and confidential pathways for reporting unsafe behaviours; training leaders to respond appropriately; tracking patterns (high turnover, increased leave, complaints) and intervening early; and not sweeping it under the rug when people are hurt, to protect a consultant or a department.

It also means recognising that fatigue is not just a side-effect of being a doctor. It’s a safety risk that must be addressed under the law.

In the most recent HHC, DiTs repeatedly raised concerns about unsafe fatigue levels, lack of access to breaks, and rosters that pushed them beyond their limits. Too many DiTs are working long, consecutive shifts without meaningful rest, which exacerbates burnout, increases the risk of clinical error, and places both doctors and patients at risk.

Fatigue management isn’t optional. The WHS Act requires employers to manage risks to health and safety, and that includes ensuring doctors are not routinely working in unsafe, exhausted conditions. Hospitals must resource and enforce rosters that allow for proper rest and recovery, especially for junior doctors in high-pressure environments. Far too often, none of that happens. And the burden falls on those with the least power to change it.

Over the past year, the AMA (WA) has heard from dozens of DiTs, interns, registrars and International Medical Graduates (IMGs) who have been targeted, sidelined or silenced. Too often, hospital management fails to act – or worse, retaliates against those who speak out. The result is a culture where bullying thrives in the shadows, protected by fear and hierarchy.

As one DiT told us: “There’s a spoken and unspoken rule: don’t claim overtime, don’t complain about the roster, or things will get worse for you. I’ve worked 14-hour shifts and just kept my head down. You don’t want to be seen as difficult or not being a team player. But it’s exhausting and it breaks people.”

But here’s the truth: you might be vulnerable on your own, but you are never alone. When we organise together, when we speak with one voice, we are safer. That’s why the union matters.

Union is the antidote to isolation. It’s how we back each other up, shine a light on unsafe practices, and shift the balance of power. When we act collectively, it’s much harder to ignore us, and far harder to retaliate against one without facing all of us. We are safest when we stand together.