What Is The Difference Between Workplace Violence And Workplace Harassment?


employment lawyers
employment lawyers

Workplace violence and harassment have become huge problems for companies to deal with in the early 21st century. There are many issues that contribute to these things, such as higher work diversity, higher worker expectations, money and job stresses, closer roles of employees with supervisors and much more.

If you are a victim of work placement violence and harassment, you can choose to hire employment lawyers Perth. In this guide, you will learn more about workplace violence and workplace harassment, along with the differences between both. 

How Common Is Workplace Violence?

Workplace violence mainly relates to physical behaviours or threats, and harassment is mostly improper or inappropriate words, behaviours or attitudes towards other people. In some definitions of workplace violence, there are mentions of harassment. The National Security Council reports that the healthcare, social assistance or service industries have the most non-fatal assaults in the workplace.

The place where there is the highest number of fatal assaults is the transportation and sales occupations. As per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, there are more than 2 million incidents of workplace violence in the private sector every year. This does not include incidents that are not reported or that precede the ones that are reported. 

Before hiring employment law lawyers, you must know that the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that out of the more than 5000 fatal workplace injuries in 2019, around 761 were intentional due to the other person. Women murdered in the workplace made up 16.3% of all workplace homicides in 2020. 

What Is Workplace Harassment?

As per the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, workplace harassment is defined as a form of employment discrimination based on religion, colour, sex, older age, national origin, genetic information or disability. It is considered to be illegal when workplace harassment creates a hostile work environment that is intolerable for most people. 

Sexual harassment and workplace bullying are two of the major examples of workplace harassment. 

There are two common types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment. The first one includes requests for a sexual favour in exchange for more pay, workplace advantages or promotions. In this case, the common supervisor-employee relationship is usually involved. There is a hostile work environment when or more employees engage in sexual or biased behaviours, including improper joke telling and firing someone from work due to their sexual or gender preference. 

Many people hire a reputed workplace lawyer in bullying cases. Bullying occurs when an employee looks to be dominant over other people. This type of behaviour can include oppressive language, gestures or threats that will bear negative consequences if the victim does not obey the bully’s requests. 

Bullies mostly take this specific approach to get their co-workers to assume some of their responsibilities or to cover up their own shortcomings or insecurities regarding work. As per the Workplace Bullying Institute Survey, bullying affected nearly 79.3 million people in 2021, with around 30% of that directly being a victim of abusive conduct. 

How Do You Avoid Workplace Violence?

Harassment, threats, bullying, and other early signs of possible violence cannot and should not be ignored in the workplace. Harassment and violence in the workplace can damage morale and psychological well-being leading to lawsuits and loss in business. Many workplace bullying lawyers get involved due to this reason, and there are legal proceedings due to bullying incidents in workplaces. The issue of workplace violence in healthcare has also become an area of concern that led relevant authorities in counties to create new requirements to address these issues. 

Due to the increasing harassment and violence issues, top firms should actively prevent them from happening. This usually starts during the hiring process when the human resources staff and managers do criminal background checks and also talk with references. It also helps in being more proactive in handling minor incidents that will become bigger with time and cause problems. 

Looking at it positively, it is important to train employees on healthy conflict resolution and also develop a high-morale workplace that can help prevent these problems. One of the major goals should be to identify past issues or any kind of problematic behaviours before hiring employees. In any workplace, companies must develop policies to resolve issues quickly and effectively before they become bigger. 

What Determines Workplace Bullying?

Before you learn more about workplace bullying laws, you must know about how workplace bullying occurs. Workplace bullying usually occurs in a disguised manner or directly, but it is also overlooked. If you have been a victim of workplace bullying, you must take the help of reputed lawyers in your area. 

You can take the help of a lawyer if you are enduring the following things:

  • Any unreasonable behaviour threatens your safety and affects both your mental and physical health.  
  • You find that this behaviour is likely to occur again and again before strict action is against it.
  • If you have been facing these kinds of situations and your employment is covered under federal anti-bullying laws, you can take the help of lawyers and file a case against that behaviour. 

National Anti-Bullying Legislation in Australia 

On January 1, 2014, new federal laws were made to prohibit workplace bullying. These anti-bullying laws safeguard employees and workers against bullying or sexual abuse in the workplace. Though these laws can help stop workplace bullying easily, they do not assure that the victims get monetary compensation or forms of reinstatement in return. 

The best workplace lawyer in Perth can help file a proper claim against these kinds of unjust and unlawful practices or acts. When hiring these lawyers, you must ensure that you are hiring them from a reputed law firm. This will ensure that you have the best lawyers fighting your case and representing you. 

Categories of Bullying Behaviours

Bullying behaviours can be divided into three categories: communication, aggression, manipulation of work and humiliation. Discrimination usually occurs when any employee or manager treats a group of people differently than others due to their protected class or religion, race, gender, nationality, genetics, age, sex or any other defining characteristic. 

Some examples can include consistently providing bonuses to males as they are males and not to females as females. The bonus is usually not provided due to individual performance. Not allowing a person to take a day off for any religious holiday or taking responsibility from a woman because they are pregnant. 

Before you look to hire workplace Local law in Usa, you must know that harassment is an unwelcoming conduct that can be intimidating, abusive or hostile. It often interferes with an employee’s ability to work or can also be the reason for continued employment. Other examples can include the use of racist and derogatory words, telling improper jokes, making offensive remarks based on age, or skin colour, hanging offensive posters, expressing negative stereotypes and much more. In case of sexual harassment, it is unwelcomed sexual advances, sexual abuse or requests for sexual favours. 

Find a Lawyer to Fight for Your Rights. 

Whether you are a victim of workplace violence or workplace harassment, you must take immediate steps. You can choose to hire the best employment lawyers in Perth WA to deliver you justice for all the losses you suffered due to the behaviours and to represent you in court cases.


Robert Parker

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