State of the Service report: Decreased bullying in public service

The Australian Public Service Commission's State of the Service report, released on Wednesday, said agencies across the APS recorded 627 complaints from employees about individual types of harassment and bullying during 2021-22.

This was a slight increase on the number recorded in the previous year of 615 complaints against individual types of behaviour.

Perceived rates of bullying in the APS have been steadily declining over the last decade, and 9.7 per cent of respondents to the 2022 APS Employee Census said they were subject to harassment or bullying in their current workplace in the last 12 months.

This was a nearly 17 per cent decrease since 2020-21, when 11.7 per cent of all APS employees reported perceived bullying and harassment.

Verbal abuse, interference with work tasks (such as withholding needed information) and inappropriate and unfair application of work policies or rules were the most common types of harassment or bullying perceived by employees.

Sexual harassment complaints decreased to 59 this year, from 78 the previous year.

First Nations employees also reported lower rates of bullying, at 16.1 per cent this year compared to 21.7 per cent in 2012.

Public servants with disabilities also saw a decrease in harassment to 18.2 per cent in 2021-22, compared to 31.2 per cent per cent in 2012.

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Only one-third, or 34 per cent, of all APS Employee Census respondents in 2022 who said they had been subjected to harassment or bullying reported the behaviour in accordance with their agency's policies and procedures.

Seven per cent said it had been reported by someone else and the remaining 59 per cent said they did not report the behaviour.

The main reasons cited for not reporting the harassment or bullying included not thinking that action would be taken, fear of possible retaliations or reprisals, and not wanting to upset workplace relationships and believing it would affect their career.

Some 165 complaints were made about verbal abuse, such as offensive language, derogatory remarks or shouting, and 30 complaints were made about physical behaviour.

Twenty-seven complaints were made about cyberbullying and two were made in relation to initiations or pranks.

Nearly 30 per cent of respondents said they were discriminated against because of their gender, while nearly 25 per cent said it was due to their age and nearly 20 per cent identified race as the reason.

36.7 per cent of people said the harassment was done by a coworker and 30.8 per cent said their perceived bully was some more senior.

"The APS must maintain efforts to create an environment that supports and encourages the reporting of unacceptable behaviour," the report said.