|
Workplace Relations, Employment & Safety Update |
|
The Crimes Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2011 (Vic) (the Bill) was passed last night in the Victorian parliament.
The Bill (known as Brodie’s law after the teenager Brodie Panlock who tragically ended her own life after a period of sustained workplace bullying) amends the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) (Crimes Act) to include bullying in the category of criminal offences.
The Bill criminalises bullying by extending the definition of stalking in section 21A of the Crimes Act to include typical bullying behaviours of:
• making threats to a victim;
• using abusive or offensive words to or in the presence of a victim;
• performing abusive or offensive acts in the presence of a victim;
• directing abusive or offensive acts towards a victim; and
• acting in any other way that could reasonably be expected, to cause physical harm (including self harm) or mental harm (including psychological harm or suicidal thoughts), or to arouse apprehension or fear in the victim for his or her own safety or that of any other person.
To read more, please click here.
|