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Workplace Bullying & Harassment in New Zealand

Being bullied or harassed at work is not "just part of the job" — New Zealand law gives you several routes, and choosing the right one matters. A personal grievance against your employer runs on a 90-day clock (12 months for sexual harassment). Health-and-safety law makes your employer responsible for managing bullying as a workplace risk. And discrimination-based harassment can also go to the Human Rights Commission. Call 0800 461 100 free, any hour, to work out the right route for your situation.

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Two clocks. Personal grievances must be raised with your employer within 90 days — except sexual harassment grievances, where a 2023 law change extended the window to 12 months. Raising a grievance costs nothing: tell your employer clearly, in writing. If your safety is at risk at work today, that is a health-and-safety emergency — treat it as one.

Workplace Bullying at a glance

The employment route

A personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage (or dismissal, incl. forced resignation) — 90 days to raise; 12 months for sexual harassment

The safety route

Employers must manage bullying as a workplace health-and-safety risk (Health and Safety at Work Act 2015); WorkSafe is the regulator

The discrimination route

Harassment tied to sex, race, disability, age, sexuality and other protected grounds can go to the Human Rights Commission — a free, alternative track

What compensation covers

Humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings — plus lost wages where the situation cost you work

If you resigned to escape

A forced resignation can be a constructive dismissal, with full grievance rights on the same clocks

What the law treats as bullying and harassment

Bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker that creates a risk to health and safety — belittling, exclusion, impossible workloads used as a weapon, public humiliation, threats. One-off incidents can still be harassment or misconduct even where they don't meet the "repeated" bar. Sexual harassment — unwelcome sexual behaviour, requests or remarks that are offensive and either repeated or serious — has its own explicit treatment in employment law, and racial harassment likewise.

The employer's obligations do not depend on the bully being a manager: employers are responsible for the environment, including harassment by colleagues, and in some circumstances by clients and customers. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Start on the record

The practical first steps double as legal ones: record incidents (dates, words, witnesses, screenshots), and raise the problem through your employer's complaint process in writing. An employer who is told and does nothing is building your case for you — the failure to act on a known risk is itself an employment and safety breach. If raising it internally is unsafe or has already failed, skip ahead: the external routes do not require you to exhaust a broken internal process. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Choosing between the three routes

The personal grievance is the workhorse: unjustified disadvantage (or constructive dismissal if you were forced out), leading to mediation, then the Employment Relations Authority, with compensation for humiliation and lost earnings. The health-and-safety route puts pressure on the system rather than compensating you — WorkSafe notifications and worker representatives can force an employer to fix an unsafe culture. The Human Rights Commission route covers harassment on protected grounds (sex, race, disability and others), offers a free mediation service, and can end at the Human Rights Review Tribunal — but you must choose between the grievance route and the HRC route for the same conduct, not run both. Choosing well at the start is exactly what a free call helps with. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Sexual harassment — the 12-month window and the 2023 change

Parliament extended the grievance window for sexual harassment from 90 days to 12 months in 2023, recognising how long it takes many people to be ready to act. The protections are broad: the harasser can be a manager, colleague, or in some cases a client; "unwelcome" is judged from your perspective; and retaliation for complaining is its own grievance. Employers must have — and follow — a process. If this is your situation, you have more time than the standard clock, more options than you may think, and a free, anonymous way to understand them: no names needed on the call. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Taking action, step by step

Document as you goDates, what was said and done, witnesses, screenshots, effects on your health and work. Contemporaneous records decide these cases.

Raise it in writingThrough the employer's process if it is safe to — and to preserve your rights, a written personal grievance within 90 days (12 months for sexual harassment).

Choose the route with adviceGrievance, WorkSafe, or the Human Rights Commission — call 0800 461 100 free, any hour, and book a NZ$295 (GST inclusive) consultation with a New Zealand employment lawyer on the call if you want one in your corner.

Workplace Bullying — your questions answered

My boss says it is "robust management", not bullying. Where is the line?

Reasonable management action done reasonably — performance reviews, direction, feedback — is not bullying, even when unwelcome. The line is crossed by repeated unreasonable behaviour: targeting, humiliation, moving goalposts, weaponised workloads. The pattern and the reasonableness are what a grievance tests.

I quit because I could not take it anymore. Have I lost my rights?

Not necessarily. Where the employer's conduct — or its failure to act on complaints — left resignation as the only real option, the law can treat it as constructive dismissal, with full grievance rights. The clock runs from the resignation, so act quickly.

The harasser is a customer, not a colleague. Is my employer still responsible?

Employers' duties extend to protecting you from foreseeable harassment in the course of your work, including by clients and customers in defined circumstances — especially once they know. An employer who shrugs at a harassing customer is failing both employment and safety duties.

What can I actually get if I win?

Compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings; lost wages where the conduct cost you income or your job; and orders that change things — the Authority can direct employers, and settlements routinely include apologies, references and departures on your terms.

Can I complain anonymously first?

You can get information anonymously — the free line needs no names. Formal routes ultimately involve identifying yourself, but you control the timing, and understanding your position first (strength, remedies, risks) is exactly what makes the next step safe to take.