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Bunnings manager allegedly bullied after refusing to terminate team members

Anna Patty
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When Bunnings department manager Bruce Johnson refused to sack members of his team he believed were doing a good job, he was warned his own job was at risk and that a manager known as "the terminator" would replace him.

After 30 years of an otherwise successful management career in various businesses, including four years at Bunnings, Mr Johnson was sacked after lodging a complaint of bullying against his supervisor.

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Bullied at Bunnings

Bruce Johnson was a department manager at Bunnings in Belrose. He alleges that he was bullied by other staff forcing him to leave.

Mr Johnson made the complaint after his workload at the Belrose, NSW, store, where he was employed from 2012 until 2016, dramatically increased to up to 60 hours a week.

A statement of claim lodged in the Federal Circuit Court alleges that a manager assigned urgent tasks to Mr Johnson near the conclusion of his shifts. It meant Mr Johnson had to start work at 5.30am and leave as late as 9.30pm a few nights a week to get the extra work done – for no extra pay. 

"I took home the same money whether I worked 38 hours a week or 60 hours a week," Mr Johnson said. 

The statement of claim alleges the manager swore at Mr Johnson and called his team members "idiots, f---wits and nuffies" in front of customers and other staff. 

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Despite promoting staff whose photographs are posted up at its stores, Mr Johnson said fear and intimidation were a dark side behind Bunnings' service with a smile. He said workers could be sacked if they were caught not smiling at customers on three occasions.

"I found it confronting that the very culture Bunnings were promoting was nothing more than a public image," he said.

After the company introduced a program to reduce workplace injuries, Mr Johnson said the number of injuries reported fell because anyone who reported one was criticised, intimidated or sacked.

He said he had been directed to manage people out of their jobs after they were injured at work or because they were "too old" or too expensive. Many were long-term employees who had earned a higher rate of pay.  

"I was asked on a number of occasions to terminate a number of people for various reasons, none of which had anything to do with their job performance," he said. "Because of the impact on the store wages budget, they were singled out to be terminated."

When a staff member who was injured at work complained about a supervisor who covertly filmed him, Mr Johnson was ordered to stop the staff member taking the complaint any further.

"I was told in no uncertain terms that if the complaint went ahead it would result in me losing my job," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson's workload started piling up and he was constantly diminished by his supervisor.

"That was a pretty horrendous experience."

After Mr Johnson lodged a complaint about the alleged bullying with the Fair Work Commission, he was sacked. He is now taking action in the Federal Circuit Court for alleged unlawful dismissal. 

It was not until the bullying, that Mr Johnson, who has a young family to support, considered suicide for the first time in his life.

"I had two young kids at home, my youngest had just been born, so there was additional pressure to contribute to the family and take care of them," Mr Johnson said.

"So every day I would get up and shrug it off and go in for some more hoping that things would either change and that some equilibrium would come back to the workplace again.

"I don't know how or when it started to get really bad, but I do remember starting to have some very negative thoughts which ended up with me contemplating taking my own life to put an end to the predicament I was in."

Maurice Blackburn associate and employment lawyer Alana Heffernan said the alleged bullying Mr Johnson suffered was "at the more severe level in terms of what we see". 

"We say he was dismissed because he had made a bullying complaint to the Fair Work Commission," she said. 

Ms Heffernan said it was extraordinary that a company the size of Bunnings, with its human resources, had ignored Mr Johnson's complaint after it was made in November last year. She said Mr Johnson's manager had threatened to sack him and bring in someone known as "the terminator" to replace him. 

"Referring to a person as the terminator is indicative of a larger cultural problem in Bunnings," Ms Heffernan said.

Despite claiming to investigate Mr Johnson's complaint, Bunnings has allegedly failed to contact any witnesses.

"Bunnings holds itself out as an employee-friendly workplace and uses employees in their advertising material. The fact of the matter is there is serious systemic bullying," Ms Heffernan said.

"It's important that larger companies are held to account in how their middle managers treat their staff on the floor and the law recognises that inaction can be just as bad as bullying." 

Cheryl Williams, state operations manager for Bunnings said: "We take the welfare of our team really seriously and have a zero tolerance to bullying. As this is before the court, we do not wish to comment further."

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