Workplace Mobbing: Definition and Meaning in Australian Workplaces

Workplace mobbing is a pattern of repeated, hostile behaviour directed at a single employee by multiple colleagues or by a group acting collectively. It is distinguished from individual bullying by the coordinated or collective nature of the conduct and typically involves exclusion, sabotage, rumour-spreading, and sustained undermining over weeks or months.

Australian law does not treat "mobbing" as a separate statutory category; it is handled under the broader framework for workplace bullying and psychosocial hazards. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s789FD defines bullying at work as repeated unreasonable behaviour by an individual or a group towards a worker that creates a risk to health and safety. The explicit reference to group conduct means mobbing falls squarely within the Fair Work Commission's anti-bullying jurisdiction when it occurs in a constitutionally covered business.

A worker subject to mobbing can apply to the FWC for a stop-bullying order under Part 6-4B of the Fair Work Act, or pursue remedies under state-based WHS legislation. Safe Work Australia's model WHS Regulations (as adopted by most jurisdictions from 1 April 2023 and progressively since) classify bullying and mobbing as psychosocial hazards that employers must identify, assess, and control so far as is reasonably practicable. NSW's Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work (in force from October 2022) and Victoria's OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (in force from 1 December 2025) both explicitly list group hostility and exclusion as psychosocial risk factors.

Where mobbing has a protected-attribute dimension (gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion), it may also engage the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), or the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth), as well as state anti-discrimination statutes.

New Zealand does not have a single statutory bullying provision; mobbing is addressed through the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (employers' primary duty to manage psychosocial hazards), the Employment Relations Act 2000 (personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage), and the Human Rights Act 1993 where a protected ground is engaged. WorkSafe New Zealand's April 2025 Good Practice Guidelines on workplace mental health explicitly name "group hostility" and "exclusion" as recognised hazard patterns.