Query to
Details of incidents
I have been subjected to various negative interactions by my manager, and I would like to know what avenues of redress are available under the OHS or other relevant laws. I am a professional working in a Government Department in Perth. The incidents include the following:
1) A request to "return to work" (i.e. to the office), after 11 years of management support for me working at home, based on my manager's need for more people to undertake essentially clerical duties. I refused to carry out these duties, which seems to have been the trigger for the subsequent incidents.
2) No action on my request for my position to be recognised as a "Specified Calling" (i.e. based on my four year degree being an essential requirement for my position specification)
3) Repeated audits of my annual and personal leave records, going back to 1993 when I commenced employment (no other team member has been audited)
4) No action on my request to attend a professional conference directly related to my area of expertise, followed by a management request for staff to volunteer as attendees. I responded to this request but was told I would need to write a justification. No other team member was required to do this.
5) Biased selection process for a recent job opportunity within my branch, whereby my manager's 2IC gave extensive assistance to one colleague's application, to the exclusion of the other team members. I submitted a "Breach of Process" letter, but was told the process was sound, which I considered unjust.
6) Last minute refusal by my manager of my most recent annual leave request, despite being entitled (i.e. in credit), based on a claim that HR was undertaking an audit of my long service leave records. This resulted in me taking half my leave as "leave without pay", despite being in credit.
7) A formal allegation from the Department CEO, obviously sponsored by my manager, who had obtained the log-on/off records from my laptops, from which she prepared a 27 page list of discrepancies between my timesheets and those log-on/off records, going back to 2006. I queried the IT department and found that my work practices (e.g. leaving laptop on between home and office) led to the records not reflecting my actual work hours.
This last incident has elevated the problem as my manager has now made a complaint which has potentially serious consequences for me (e.g. dismissal). Also, I no longer wish to rely upon Departmental processes to complain / resolve these issues, especially given that a prior complaint seems to have fallen on deaf ears (no action from senior management with respect to my "Breach of Process" letter).
Therefore, I would like to seek legal advice on the following:
a) advice on how to deal with the current allegations
b) ways to resolve what I consider to be ongoing bullying. I would appreciate a view as to whether this series of events would be considered bullying, especially given the rising levels of stress that these events have caused me.
c) whether I can take any action to seek compensation or otherwise put a stop to these incidents, which have caused me an increasing amount of stress since November 2010.