Stevens v DP World Melbourne Ltd

In workplace bullying claims for psychiatric injury, a trial judge must consider the cumulative effect of all proven incidents rather than analysing each in isolation against a definition of bullying. Where there is medical consensus that a plaintiff has suffered a work-related mental injury, the judge must consider whether unreliability in the plaintiff's evidence may be a product of that injury before making adverse credit findings. Evident signs of distress or vulnerability are not a precondition for foreseeability of psychiatric injury where the risk of such injury from workplace bullying is acknowledged. An employer cannot discharge its duty of care merely by pointing to the robust nature of the workplace or rudimentary training; it must take active steps to prevent bullying once it knows or ought to know of its existence.