Tasmanian State Service Employee Survey 2023: Bullying, sexual harassment in public sector laid bare

New figures exposing the level of bullying and sexual harassment occurring in Tasmania’s public service have been described as “distressing” and “concerning”.

Thirza White CPSU secretary. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

One in five state servants say they have been bullied at work in the last 12 months and more than 200 have been sexually harassed, according to a “distressing” new survey.

Almost 10,000 workers responded to the Tasmanian State Service Employee Survey 2023, or 29 per cent of the total workforce.

The survey, which has been conducted every two years but will now be undertaken annually, ran from March 7-28 and all employees were invited to take part in it.

Community and Public Sector Union general secretary Thirza White said the results were “distressing” and “concerning”.

“The most striking observation is that despite previous surveys noting serious concerns in areas such as bullying and sexual harassment, little has improved,” she said.

Of those who responded to the survey, 29 per cent were male, 68 per cent were female, and 1 per cent identified as ‘other’, while 2 per cent preferred not to disclose their gender.

CPSU General Secretary Thirza White. Picture: Chris Kidd

Asked whether they had experienced workplace bullying in the last 12 months, 21 per cent of employees said yes, 75 per cent said no, and 4 per cent said they were unsure.

This compares to 21 per cent saying they had been bullied in the 2020 survey, and 23 per cent in 2018.

Of the workers who said they were bullied, 39 per cent reported being bullied by a fellow worker, 32 per cent by an immediate manager/supervisor and 28 per cent by a senior manager.

The most common bullying behaviours identified were intimidation (51 per cent) and exclusion/isolation (47 per cent).

For the third consecutive survey, 61 per cent of respondents who had experienced bullying did not report the behaviour, with the key reasons being that they “did not think any action would be taken” (56 per cent), it could “affect my career” (38 per cent), and “managers accepted the behaviour” (36 per cent).

There were 202 public servants who said they had been sexually harassed at work in the last 12 months, equating to 2 per cent of the total respondents, as was also the case in 2020 and 2018.

Again, workers were reluctant to report the behaviour, with 70 per cent saying they had opted against it.

Executive Building, Murry St Hobart. Premiers and government offices. Tasmania. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Richard Jupe

Asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, ‘I am confident that I would be protected from reprisal for reporting improper conduct”, 51 per cent of respondents said they agreed and 23 per cent said they disagreed.

Ms White said the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian government’s responses to child sexual abuse in institutional settings had “exposed a multitude of failings in the complaints process yet nothing has been changed”.

“What are we waiting for?” she said.

A State Service spokeswoman said the survey showed employees were “increasingly confident to report negative or inappropriate behaviour”.

“No bullying is OK and we want our employees to feel confident and safe to report bullying,” she said.

“This annual survey is an important mechanism to get feedback from the State Service employees about issues that matter to our workforce.”

The spokeswoman said numerous actions were being taken to improve workplace culture across the public service.

Originally published as Tasmanian State Service Employee Survey 2023: Bullying, sexual harassment in public sector laid bare