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Requiring targets be met not bullying

In a recent Employment Relations decision an employee’s personal grievance alleging bullying was rejected. The employee was told (along with others) that he needed to meet his performance requirements. The ERA noted that just because the employee found the comments irritating, it did not mean that he was being bullied.

An employer is allowed to set fair targets and expect them to be met. They need to be consistently applied.  In general, two employees with the same level of experience and skills etc should be treated consistently. An employer cannot impose a lower standard for one and hold another to a higher standard.

Also when it comes time to measure and deal with poor performance employees need to be treated consistently. An employer cannot use the process to get rid of a non performing employee they do not like while not dealing in a consistent way with a well liked but equally non performing employee.