What are aggravating factors?

• Aggravating factors are issues that may count against an employee at a disciplinary hearing such as:
  • the seriousness of the offending conduct;
  • past history of offending conduct;
  • position of the employee in the workplace; and
  • length of offending conduct.
• For example in a case of verbal abuse it would likely be considered aggravated circumstances if the offender was a manager and they were abusing their staff. This is because they are in a position of authority and their staff may be too frightened to stand up for themselves for fear of losing their job. The manager’s offence should be considered more serious than if it was one co-worker to another.