Safe Work Australia and eSafety have produced fact sheets warning employers and employees of the dangers of online abuse in the workplace, and outlining measures to prevent it.
The fact sheets define online abuse as “behaviour that uses technology to threaten, intimidate, bully, harass or humiliate someone”.
In a statement, Safe Work Australia said the abuse could crop up from many sources including social media, online chat, and messaging services, by telephone (calls and text messages), email or any other technology used at the workplace.
“If your business involves working online or with other technologies, you must manage the risk of online abuse just as you would for any other workplace hazard,” Safe Work Australia said.
“This means you must eliminate or minimise risks as much as you reasonably can as online abuse is never acceptable and should never be considered as part of doing your job.”
The fact sheets outline the requirements for all workplaces.
First and foremost among them they say there should be a safe physical and online working environment with safe work systems and procedures to prevent and respond to behaviour such as violence, aggression, bullying and sexual harassment online.
They say there should be a workplace policy which sets out how the workplace will prevent and respond to this behaviour, including acceptable standards of behaviour for all workers, customers and clients.
It says all workplaces should have information, training and supervision, such as what to do if online abuse happens, how to report it and how workers could access support services.
Safe Work said it was a responsibility for employers to consult their workers and any health and safety representatives about the risks of online abuse and ways to eliminate or minimise it.
“Finally if anyone (including yourself) is in immediate danger in the workplace they should call triple zero,” Safe Work said.
Safe Work Australia’s two-page fact sheets for employees can be accessed at this PS News link and the four-page fact sheet for employers at this link.
