Workplace Bullying at its worst.

Blenner-Hassett v Murray Goulburn Co-operative Pty Limited & Ors - 1999 Victoria County Court (2651/96-Morwell)

Blenner-Hassett illustrates both the nastiness of workplace initiation (aka hazing) and use of common law tort claims.

As discussed earlier in this note, teenager Kevin Blenner-Hassett, an apprentice fitter & turner in the Murray Goulburn Co-Op's workshops, underwent bullying himself and witnessed others being bullied. Gebhardt J commented that "In essence he maintains that his life has been inexorably skewed and damaged because of workplace bullying", which amounted to "unacceptable workplace intimidation and bastardization" over several years.

The target was stripped, painted, threatened with rape, recurrently taunted and had the dubious pleasure of seeing a work experience employee suspended over a fire. Almost a decade later he took court action.

An expert witness commented that it's a shocking thing to do to a person, a human being, at any age, but being an adolescent is a very vulnerable time because that is the time when the sense of identity is being formed and so the sense of identity of who you are, getting back to your point before, about the sense of self, is being formed from a child, the child sense of identity which is different to the adult sense of identity, so it's a transition time and therefore a very vulnerable time in the sense of development of sense of self and sense of identity. So, to traumatise a person at that age, has devastating - potentially devastating consequences which it has done in this case, in my opinion.

The Court accepted arguments that the bullying had indeed traumatised the target and that his employer had been negligent in failing to prevent the torment. It was unimpressed by suggestions that the abuse was "training" or harmless "pranks". It awarded $350,000 damages.