Maurice Blackburn

A senior marketing manager for Westpac has filed proceedings at Fair Work Australia after she was retrenched from her role shortly after complaining that she was being subjected to bullying and intimidation from her team leader.

The woman was headhunted for the role and began working at the bank in late 2010.

Maurice Blackburn employment law specialist Josh Bornstein said the woman had sought to take her fight to the tribunal.

"Our client alleges that she was threatened and belittled and that once she followed company policy by complaining to the HR Department, her fate at the bank was sealed. From that moment, she was stripped of responsibilities, excluded from meetings and then retrenched," Mr Bornstein said.

"Our client had a successful career before starting at Westpac and was headhunted for this role. She was told it would be 'an opportunity of a lifetime' and was forced to work in an increasingly toxic environment."

Mr Bornstein said that under the Fair Work Act, an employer cannot sack an employee because of the making of a workplace complaint and law governing bullying is overdue for reform.

"Bullying is not illegal. It clearly should be. In this case, the irony is that our client is able to sue Westpac because the law provides a right to employees to make workplace complaints and be protected from a retaliatory sacking, not because the law protects employees from bullying," he said.

"In this case, the employee has complained about bullying and shortly afterwards been sacked. She is able to sue Westpac for damages and seek the imposition of a significant financial penalty. She is only able to sue because she complained.

"Unfortunately, the law short changes victims of bullying. Bullying victims have to wait until they are seriously injured before having a meaningful legal remedy."

Mr Bornstein said workplace bullying, remains endemic and invariably in cases of bullying, the employer has a state of the art bullying policy.

"Clearly, adopting such policies is nowhere near enough and employers need to do much more to ensure compliance, even if it means dealing with talented, high performing managers," he said.

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers have lodged a general protections application on behalf of the client at Fair Work Australia. A conciliation hearing is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks.

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