About 300,000 employed people, or 11% of workers, said they had experienced discrimination, harassment, or bullying in the past 12 months, says Statistics New Zealand.

The survey of working life, conducted between October and December 2018, asked employed people about their work arrangements, employment conditions, and satisfaction with their job and work/life balance during the previous 12 months.

Women were more likely than men to have experienced discrimination, harassment, or bullying, with 14% of women and 9% of men saying they’d suffered from such treatment over the previous year. Workers between the ages of 45 and 54 reported the highest rate of discrimination, harassment, or bullying at 14%.

Asian and Māori groups both reported a rate of 13%, while Pacific and European groups both had rates of 11%.

“The discrimination, harassment, or bullying at work could be by anyone – from co-workers or managers to the general public,” says labour market statistics manager Scott Ussher.

A majority of employees felt they had good or very good workplace relationships with their manager and colleagues, and reported a rate of discrimination, harassment, or bullying at 9%. Those employees who had indifferent, bad, or very bad relationships with either their manger or colleagues reported a rate three times as high (35%).

Union members experienced significantly more discrimination, harassment, or bullying (20%) than those who stated they were not members (10%).