Employee Assist Program (EAP)

As a Tasmanian practising certificate holder you are able to access the complete Employee Assist Program. State Service employees can also access EAP.

The Law Society engages Converge International as the exclusive provider of free and confidential counselling services to its members. Converge International operates throughout Australia and provides employee assistance programs (EAP) to a number of Law Societies across Australia. Its EAP program provides support and counselling for a broad range of personal and work related issues. This EAP is broken down into a number of streams as listed below.

You can access EAP, book an appointment and find out further information at the Law Society of Tasmania website in the Wellbeing section, accessed through the Member’s portal.

Download the EAP Connect app here.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) includes:

• Employee Assist – Support and counselling for a broad range of personal and work related issues.
• Manager Assist – Coaching and advice to assist with a variety of people management issues and the development of leadership competencies. This offers a coaching and advisory line designed specifically for supervisors and managers. Its aim is to help you lead, manage and support your team to maximise performance and achievement. See here for the Managers’ Guide to EAP.
• Career Assist – Career development and planning, resumes and job seeking assistance, interview skills, vocational counselling
• Conflict Assist – Strategies, tools and coaching to deal with difficult work place and personal situations
• Nutrition and Lifestyle Assist – Specialist advice across nutrition, sleep, resilience, mindfulness, addictive behaviours, retirement planning and positive lifestyle changes
• Money Assist – Financial counselling to help people work through financial wellbeing concerns

Early Career lawyers

The Law Society of Tasmania’s ‘Ultimate Survival Guide for your First Year in Legal Practice.

Sexual Harassment

If you have experienced or witnessed sexual harassment, the sexual harassment reporting tool is a safe space to report it, with the option of anonymity.

The Board has a dedicated team who have received specialised training, to support reporting of sexual harassment. The LPBT Response Team are responsible for receiving and handling all reports and complaints of sexual harassment.

You can access the reporting tool and a number of other resources relating to sexual harassment here.

Bullying and Harassment

Under workplace health and safety laws, your employer has significant obligations to provide a safe workplace, and that includes emotional and psychological safety, as well as physical safety.

A workplace that tolerates bullying, harassment, or serious overwork is not a safe workplace.

There is also a specific conduct rule that specifies that a lawyer must not engage in conduct that constitutes discrimination, sexual harassment or workplace bullying.

Below is a list of actions you might wish to take if you feel you are experiencing bullying at work. The course of action you choose will depend on the nature of the bullying and your workplace.

• If you can, tell the person the behaviour is unreasonable/inappropriate, that you are offended and want it to stop.
• Get advice from your health and safety representative (HSR).
• Keep a record of events that includes the names of people involved, for example, witnesses. Make sure the records focus on the facts of the situation, what happened, including dates and times and, if possible, copies of any documents.
• Use the workplace or occupational health and safety (OHS) procedure to report the situation.
• Seek professional counselling and/or advice.
• Talk to people you trust at your workplace, for example, a supervisor, manager, HSR, union representative or someone from human resources.

WorkSafe has comprehensive information about workplace bullying and can provide information and support via their Advisory phone service.

There are also other agencies that can help:

• Fair Work Commission
• Fair Work Ombudsman
• Australian Human Rights Commission
• Equal Opportunity
• Beyond Blue
• Lifeline

Reporting bullying to the Board

Any lawyer facing difficulties in their workplace can call us, even anonymously, to discuss their situation.

Generally, employment disputes are not complaints that we handle. They should be resolved by other legal means or should be dealt with by other regulatory bodies such as the Fair Work Commission or Fair Work Ombudsman. However, serious matters may be investigated as a disciplinary matter, where there is serious harm or a breach of the rules.

Therefore, we would like to know about these incidents so we can assess whether a regulatory response is required (for example, matters involving sexual harassment or workplace bullying are of particular interest to us and may result in a compliance audit of the law practice or workplace).

You can let us know about your experience of workplace bullying by:

• Phone
• Report sexual harassment link
• Enquiry email