Bullied or harassed at a WA state-system workplace? The first door you pick matters.

Who can apply

Any worker who reasonably believes they've been bullied. "Worker" is wider than employee: it includes contractors and subcontractors, labour hire workers, outworkers, apprentices and trainees, students on work experience and volunteers. What matters is that you were doing work for the business or undertaking at the time the bullying happened. The definition expressly includes public authorities, so WA public sector bodies and local governments are covered. A volunteer organisation that employs nobody is not.

What the Commission can do

• It must start dealing with your application within 14 days of lodgement.
• It can make any order it considers appropriate to prevent the bullying continuing.
• It can only make an order if it's satisfied you were bullied and there's a risk it will continue.
• It cannot order compensation. A stop bullying order looks forward only.

Before settling the terms of an order, the Commission must take into account any investigation already done and your employer's grievance procedure. In practice, if your grievance hasn't been investigated yet, expect the Commission to ask your employer to deal with it first.

There's no time limit in the IR Act for a stop bullying application, and the WAIRC fee is $50 (as at 24 September 2026), which can be waived for financial hardship. Compensation for bullying is only available indirectly: if a stop bullying order is made and then breached, the Industrial Magistrates Court can order compensation for loss or injury caused by the breach, and a penalty.

Your employer can be liable for its employee's harassment as if it had done it itself, unless it proves it took all reasonable steps to prevent it (s 51BS). That is a demanding standard: policies, training, and what it did about earlier complaints all matter.

Two tracks, which you can run together

The Commission may dismiss a sexual harassment proceeding started more than 24 months after the last incident (s 51BU). That's a discretion, not a hard deadline, but don't rely on it.

There's also a court route. Instead of a referral, you can apply to the Industrial Magistrates Court for a civil penalty for breach of the prohibition. That application can be made up to 6 years after the harassment, the court can order compensation and lost pay, and penalties of up to $93,000 for a company ($930,000 for a serious contravention) and $18,000 for an individual ($180,000 if serious) apply from 31 January 2025. You can use the referral or the court route for a particular allegation, not both.

As at September 2026 the WAIRC had not yet published a reasoned decision making a final stop order or deciding a sexual harassment referral on its merits, so how it will apply these provisions is still untested.

Who blocks whom

• A complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission, a complaint to the AHRC, or an application to the Fair Work Commission about the allegation stops a later WAIRC referral or court application about it (s 51BZD).
• A WAIRC referral or court application stops a later Equal Opportunity complaint (Equal Opportunity Act s 83B). On the text, it does not stop a later AHRC complaint or Fair Work application — but running two forums on the same allegation invites other problems.
• An Equal Opportunity or AHRC complaint and a Fair Work sexual harassment claim block each other (Fair Work Act s 734B), except a Fair Work application that seeks only a stop order.
• Each bar lifts only if the earlier matter is withdrawn or fails for lack of jurisdiction. A complaint sitting in conciliation still counts as made.

The list of laws in s 51BZD is a closed list of eleven. It includes the Equal Opportunity Act, the AHRC Act, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), but not the federal Racial, Disability or Age Discrimination Acts. In practice, the forum for each allegation needs to be settled before the first form goes in, so consider getting professional advice on which one fits your case.

• WA unfair dismissal, including being forced to resign: 28 days to the WAIRC. See WA unfair dismissal.
• Unlawful termination under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 772, which reaches WA state-system employees, where the reason was, for example, a complaint you made against your employer about a breach of the law, or a protected attribute such as sex, age or disability: 21 days to the Fair Work Commission.
• Damaging action, if the treatment followed a complaint or inquiry you made about your employment: a claim in the Industrial Magistrates Court within 6 years. See damaging action.
• Discrimination, if the treatment was because of your sex, race, disability, age or another protected attribute: the Equal Opportunity Act (12 months) or the federal Acts through the AHRC.
• Health and safety: if you were targeted for raising a safety issue, a claim in the Work Health and Safety Tribunal within 1 year, where the employer has to prove the safety issue was not a substantial reason. Lodging another claim about the same matter first, such as unfair dismissal, can shut this one off.
• Workers compensation: a psychiatric injury caused by bullying may be compensable.

Keep your own record as you go: dates, what was said or done, who saw it, who you reported it to and what happened next. Messages and emails are worth saving outside your work account.