A WOMAN who worked as a dump truck driver at Mt Arthur coal mine is suing her employers for damages over persistent bullying and harassment.
The woman, who worked at the Muswellbrook mine between 2012 and 2016, says she was bullied and harassed from day one and her reports to authorities were largely ignored.
She started out as a trainee, and was variously employed at the mine by Mt Arthur Coal Pty Limited, TESA Mining NSW Pty Limited, and Readyforce, a division of Chandler Macleod Group Limited.
The worker who bullied her would glare, ridicule and laugh at her, heckle her, call her a 'dog' and 'growl' at her on more than 150 occasions between 2012 and early 2016, she says.
Prank 'unsafe'
That worker also placed her and others in danger at times including one day in 2015, when she flooded a ramp that the woman had to drive down in a large dump truck, making it slippery and unsafe, she claims.
In her submission to the Supreme Court, the woman included statements from colleagues including one who described her as often being "terrified", shaking and teary.
The effects were not limited to the work place, over time affecting her outside of work, such as going shopping.
Another colleague said she had been aware the woman was being harassed for "some time". The employee responsible would deliberately refuse to give her sufficient "crib breaks", or deliberately assign her trucks which needed fuel, and was known for generally "making her feel like crap, making her feel really small".
PTSD ends career
The woman stopped working in August 2016 due to the adverse psychological effects of the bullying and harassment and was later diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and with chronic PTSD.
When she stopped work, she became depressed and suicidal and was unable to perform "the most basic of activities", the court was told.
A psychiatrist who considered her unfit for work at that time, in 2016, described symptoms including significant weight loss, sleep disturbance, low self-esteem and anxiety.
The condition turned her into a recluse, causing her to withdraw and live alone in a caravan, unable to manage her own affairs, suffering anxiety and panic attacks, documents tendered in the Supreme Court say.
She started receiving workers' compensation benefits in about September 2016.
Statute of limitations
The woman applied to the court for permission to start proceedings against the three defendants despite the time limit of three years, saying she was unable to initiate proceedings any earlier due to her mental health.
Associate Justice Joanne Harrison accepted her submission that she was psychologically unable to receive and properly understand legal advice when she sought it prior to 2021.
The employee has denied the allegations, however, Associate Justice Harrison said there was no real dispute that the woman suffered psychiatric and psychological injuries arising from the other female worker's behaviour at Mt Arthur.
In her foreshadowed claim, the woman says that one supervisor who fielded her complaint sat her down with the other employee and told them to "act in a civil manner" and to get along, failing to properly investigate the complaints and allowing the behaviour to continue.
Failures and liability
She alleges she approached five different people in positions of authority, and that her employers were liable for failing to put in place and enforce an effective bullying and harassment policy, failing to investigate her complaints and condition properly or at all, and failed to provide counselling and assistance.
Her employers were vicariously liable for the intentional conduct of the employee, and for that of those people in authority who failed to act.
While the three defendants argue she does not have a case against them, the judge ruled she has a reasonably arguable claim in negligence against each.
