SA Commissioner for Public Sector Employment vows action to address widespread bullying and harassment

An action plan may come into place within weeks to address widespread bullying and harassment of public servants in the state’s public sector.

• SA’s sickest government department
• Thousands of public servants to get training in mental health first aid

More than one in three South Australian public servants have witnessed bullying or harassment in their workplace in the past 12 months, according to a new survey.

Verbal abuse, derogatory remarks, shouting, screaming, withholding needed information, undermining and sabotage have all been listed as the main problems in a survey undertaken by 24,341 public servants.

Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Erma Ranieri.

The report, done by 22 per cent of the state’s public sector workers including doctors, nurses, police and administration workers, has prompted government action plan that will be released within a month.

Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Erma Ranieri told The Advertiser the survey, done in October, prompted a raft of changes within the state’s public sector.

“It is the first time in my time as commissioner that we have done a whole-of government survey,” Commissioner Ranieri, pictured, said.

“But if you don’t ask, you don’t know.”

Last year, before the survey was done, Commissioner Ranieri’s office started the process of having 2000 public servants undergo mental health first aid training.

Ms Ranieri has briefed every department chief executive and about 150 key leaders across government agencies about the results of the survey.

“I will in the next few weeks have a very detailed action plan for all of government so that we can maximise programs together,” she said.

One of the proposals under consideration is a contact officer in each agency.

“If I have people on the ground that can recognise it when people are falling over or need a little more support we can intervene earlier,” she said.

“People then know there is someone there to support them.”

The survey found one of the public sector’s high points was in employee engagement.

“This is a critical measure to show us people are engaged, are productive, and are driven to do their best,” Commissioner Ranieri said.