The experiences of Australian Public Servants who raise issues within the agency they work for are remarkably similar. As are the actions taken against them for complaining about the treatment meted out to them. In simpler times such patterns would have been taken to indicate conspiracy and cover up.

However, these are not simple times and it would it be wrong to say that there is a massive conspiracy. The situation is more complex than that.

Rather, the…

http://http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/afp-accused-of-bullying-culture-20130504-2j0ea.html

An interesting quote obtained from the article " It should be noted that acceptance by Comcare of a claim for work- related harassment and / or workplace bulling or not, and the incident of work -related harassment and or workplace bullying has…

It is a potentially positive development that Comcare is going to be given the powers to take over injury management from Australian Public Service agencies. See Comcare set to sideline agencies.

Quite frankly, responsibility for injury management should be taken off agencies right now. They should be forced get their practices into shape so that they do…

Senator Mason (Liberal) asked a number of questions concerning unscheduled absences within Australian Public Service agencies (otherwise known as unplanned leave). These were questions on notice asked under the auspices of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee.

Answers were recently provided by the…

Today, the Canberra Times published an article entitled Whistleblower laws facing fine-tuning. Apparently, the Australian Public Service Commissioner, Stephen Sedgwick, informed the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs that the laws should not allow public servants to go 'forum shopping'.

Quite frankly, this is a bit rich given the…

We would like to announce that Steve Davies, Founder of OZloop, has taken over APSbullying.com (and its associated Dignity for All Australian Public Servants Facebook page) - sites that were set up in 2011/2012 to support targets of workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and…

Professor Brian Martin of Whistleblowers Australia has written an excellent book review about Professor Robert G. Vaughn's new book "The Successes and Failures of Whistleblower Laws". 

Robert G. Vaughn is a Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law. He has published on a variety of topics regarding public information law, public employment…

I am far and away not a conspiracy theorist. Unlike many senior officials within Australian Public Service agencies I do not see threat at every turn.

Furthermore, unlike senior officials within corporate areas ranging from human resources through to compliance and communication areas I do not operate in clandestine and cowardly ways to manipulate employees and the community. Neither do I seek to repress free speech. I detest abusive administrative regimes that cause…

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-26/abs-targeted-by-hackers/4652758?section=business

24/4/13

Soldier's drug use questioned

MICHAEL VINCENT: Seroquel, also known by its generic name Quetiapine, was originally created to treat only bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Then, in 2010, it was approved for use in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration to treat generalised anxiety disorder and major depression with recommended doses of up to 150 milligrams…

The Australian Anti-Bullying Commission (AABC)

How about this as a solution to the problem.

• Establish a new Federal Government Commission called the AABC.
• Give it special powers.
• Set up a on-line system located at the AABC head office called the ROI (a Register Of Incidents) where all HR events (allegations, misconduct interviews, performance management,etc )…

The following is a link to an article in Business Spectator, “Paralysed in a tax office trap”. It relates to ABNs and individual contractors.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/4/24/small-business-sme/paralysed-tax-office-trap

The author states, “In my view the legal basis for the ATO setting itself up as a God-like, online determiner of an individual’s…

During my time with CSIRO I was sometimes asked to attend a serious meeting that could impact my employment. I would always request that the meeting be recorded with a audio recording device.

On every occasion my request was denied.

Why? Because those that were conducting these meeting knew they were often stepping outside the law with their conduct and they made every effort not to leave traces of incriminating evidence.

Now this is just a thought, but if employees were…

ATO is not a government statutory organisation, its not a government department, its not even a collection of dim offices bundled together. It is in fact a 100+ year old social experiment - one that attempts to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution. For those a bit rusty on their "Sir Charles" knowledge, Darwin predicted that species would adapt in order survive in their local environment in what is dubbed "survival of the fittest".…

One of the defensive routines we see from Australian Public Service agencies and, indeed, Comcare is that workplace bullying and mobbing are not taking place when managers are attempting to 'manage' employees.

This is right up there with climate change denial and, as we have often said on Ozloop, is one of the favourite party tricks that enables systemic bullying and mobbing across Australian Public Service agencies.

It is important to counter these…

I sometimes see indications that some people who suffer horribly from bullying situations have mindsets, habits, values-systems, expectations, perspectives and possibly other emotional or psychological needs or perspectives that I am not equipped to label, that must make things hard for the people they are troubled by, fighting, feuding, wrangling with, etc.

A friend in a large bureaucracy describes the dilemma he/she faces in these terms:

'…

I am the first to acknowledge that the Australian Public Service Commission has a hard job to do and does do some great work - for example, the work being done around capability development and the work undertaken by the Human Capital Research and Evaluation group.

However,…

Here is a link to Contact Your PM to tell her how wonderful her departments are at complying with and supporting anti-bullying.

http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

After all everyone deserves constructive feedback on their performance. How  do you stand there promoting your anti-bullying when you employ the biggest bullies in the country.

You will get a copy of  your feedback via…