Workplace bullying laws in Virginia don’t exist as a single statute you can point to. The Commonwealth has no general law that makes bullying illegal on its own, so your legal options depend on whether the mistreatment is tied to a characteristic the law protects, crosses into conduct extreme enough to support a civil claim, or falls within one of a few narrow statutory protections for specific workers. Knowing which category applies to your situation is the difference between having a case and having a grievance with no remedy.
When Bullying Becomes Illegal
The strongest tool for Virginia employees facing targeted abuse is the Virginia Human Rights Act, codified at Virginia Code § 2.2-3900 and later sections. The 2020 amendments, commonly called the Virginia Values Act, significantly expanded the law. It prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and military status.1Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Human Rights Act The current employment discrimination provisions sit at Virginia Code § 2.2-3905.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 2.2-3905 – Nondiscrimination in Employment Virginia’s employment discrimination provisions generally cover employers with five or more employees.
The requirement is a connection between the bullying and one of those protected characteristics. A supervisor who screams at everyone equally is a bad manager but likely not violating this statute. A supervisor who singles out employees because of their race, disability, or pregnancy is committing unlawful harassment.
Federal law layers on top. The Americans with Disabilities Act makes harassment illegal when it becomes frequent or severe enough to create a hostile or offensive work environment, including offensive remarks about a person’s disability.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Disability Discrimination and Employment Decisions The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who request accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions or who report discrimination under the law.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
The Hostile Work Environment Threshold
Not every unpleasant interaction qualifies. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. that workplace harassment must be severe or pervasive enough to create an environment a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive.5Justia. Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. A single incident can qualify if it is extreme enough, but less dramatic behavior needs to form a pattern. Courts weigh how often the conduct occurred, how severe it was, whether it involved physical threats or humiliation versus offhand comments, and whether it interfered with your ability to do the job.
This is where most bullying claims fall apart. A co-worker who constantly undermines you, takes credit for your work, or spreads rumors may be making your life miserable, but unless that behavior is driven by a protected trait, it doesn’t meet the legal threshold for a hostile work environment claim.
Options When No Protected Class Is Involved
When bullying doesn’t connect to a protected characteristic, your options narrow but don’t disappear. Virginia recognizes the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, laid out by the Virginia Supreme Court in Womack v. Eldridge. The conduct must be intentional or reckless, outrageous enough to offend generally accepted standards of decency, directly connected to the distress, and the distress must be severe.
Courts are blunt about what “outrageous” means. The standard exists specifically to keep out cases involving bad manners or hurt feelings. A judge first decides whether the alleged conduct could reasonably be considered extreme and outrageous; only if it clears that threshold does a jury see it. In practice, routine workplace bullying, even persistent and mean-spirited bullying, usually doesn’t qualify. Cases that succeed tend to involve truly shocking behavior: calculated campaigns of degradation, threats, or exploitation of a power imbalance in especially cruel ways.
If bullying involves unwanted physical contact or genuine threats of imminent harm, you may also have claims for civil assault or battery. These seek monetary damages for medical costs and emotional suffering. Virginia sets a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims, which covers intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery.6Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 8.01-243 – Personal Action for Injury to Person or Property Generally The clock starts on the date of the harmful act.
Workers’ compensation is rarely a useful tool here. Virginia’s system under Title 65.2 treats purely psychological injuries with extreme scrutiny when there’s no physical trigger, and benefits are generally limited to sudden, identifiable events rather than the gradual toll of chronic bullying. A narrow exception exists for law enforcement officers and firefighters who develop PTSD, anxiety, or depressive disorders from qualifying line-of-duty events.7Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 65.2 – Workers’ Compensation
If You Work for a Public School or State Agency
Public employees have access to protections the private sector doesn’t offer. The Virginia Department of Human Resource Management enforces Policy 2.35, Civility in the Workplace, which explicitly prohibits bullying, harassment (including sexual harassment), cyberbullying, and workplace violence in state agencies.8Virginia Department of Human Resource Management. Policy 2.35 Civility in the Workplace The prohibition reaches employees, applicants, contract workers, volunteers, and other third parties. Management must investigate reports, and discipline can range from a formal reprimand to termination. The policy doesn’t give you a right to sue, but it opens an administrative path, and state employees can also use the Commonwealth’s grievance process.
School board employees have the closest thing Virginia offers to a standalone workplace bullying statute. Virginia Code § 22.1-291.4 prohibits abusive work environments within school divisions and requires each school board to adopt policies addressing workplace bullying, discipline employees who contribute to an abusive environment, and protect employees from retaliation for reporting it.9Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 22.1-291.4 – Bullying and Abusive Work Environments Prohibited It applies only to school divisions.
Protection After You Report
One of the most practical protections has nothing to do with the bullying itself and everything to do with what happens after you report it. Virginia Code § 40.1-27.3 prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who report violations of state or federal law to a supervisor, government body, or law enforcement official. Retaliation includes firing, demotion, discipline, threats, pay cuts, and changes to working conditions or job location.10Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-27.3 – Retaliatory Action Against Employee Prohibited The statute also protects employees who refuse orders to commit a crime or violate state or federal law and those who participate in government investigations.
If your employer retaliates, you can file a civil lawsuit within one year of the retaliatory action. Available remedies include a court order stopping the retaliation, reinstatement, lost wages and benefits with interest, and reasonable attorney fees. That one-year deadline is shorter than many people expect and much shorter than the two-year window for personal injury claims. If you’ve reported misconduct and the employer responded by making things worse, move quickly.
Group Complaints Under Federal Labor Law
Private-sector employees have a federal right that often gets overlooked in bullying situations. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees who engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of…mutual aid or protection,” whether or not they belong to a union.11National Labor Relations Board. Interfering With Employee Rights (Section 7 and 8(a)(1)) When two or more employees discuss a supervisor’s abusive behavior, sign a group complaint, or bring working-condition concerns to management together, that activity is federally protected.
Employers cannot threaten, discipline, or fire workers for engaging in protected group activity. Even an individual employee can be protected when raising concerns on behalf of co-workers or trying to organize collective action around shared workplace problems.12National Labor Relations Board. Protected Concerted Activity The protection has limits: misconduct during otherwise protected activity can forfeit coverage, and the complaint must genuinely concern shared working conditions rather than a purely personal grievance. Filing a charge with the National Labor Relations Board is free, and the Board investigates and prosecutes violations on the employee’s behalf.
When Bullying Turns Into Threats of Violence
There are no specific federal OSHA standards for workplace bullying or workplace violence.13Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Workplace Violence – Enforcement However, the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. When bullying escalates to threats of violence, and the employer knows about them but fails to act, OSHA can cite the employer if a feasible way to reduce the hazard exists. The agency considers employers to be on notice when they’ve experienced prior incidents or are aware of threats and intimidation. This won’t help with ordinary bullying, but it gives you a reporting avenue when a co-worker’s behavior starts to feel physically dangerous.
Think Twice Before You Quit
Being bullied into quitting is sometimes called constructive discharge, and Virginia’s approach to it is restrictive. The Virginia Supreme Court has not formally recognized a standalone state law cause of action for constructive discharge. Some lower Virginia courts have permitted the claim where an employer created intolerable conditions through actions that violate a clear public policy of the Commonwealth, while several federal courts applying Virginia law have held that no such claim exists under Virginia common law.
Where constructive discharge does matter is inside a federal discrimination claim. If you can show that your employer’s discriminatory harassment made conditions so intolerable that a reasonable employee would have felt compelled to resign, a court may treat your resignation as a termination for Title VII or ADA purposes. Quitting before you’ve exhausted administrative options and documented the conditions that forced you out can weaken your position considerably. If the situation has become unbearable, consult an employment attorney before resigning.
How and Where to File
If protected-class harassment is involved, you have two administrative paths before any lawsuit. You can file with the Virginia Office of Civil Rights, housed within the Attorney General’s office, using their online form or a paper submission by mail.14Attorney General of Virginia. Civil Rights All complaints must be signed and supported by a written declaration under penalty of perjury.
You can also file a charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because Virginia has a state agency enforcing its own anti-discrimination law, the EEOC filing deadline extends from 180 to 300 calendar days after the discriminatory act.15U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination Miss that 300-day window and your claim is typically gone, so file early even if you’re still gathering evidence.
After filing with the EEOC, you generally must allow 180 days for investigation before requesting a Notice of Right to Sue, which is the document that lets you take the case to federal court.16U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge Sometimes the EEOC issues the notice earlier. Once you receive it, you typically have 90 days to file suit.
Documenting What’s Happening
Whatever legal avenue might apply, documentation is what separates a claim from a complaint. Keep a written log of each incident with date, time, location, what was said or done, and who witnessed it. Save emails, text messages, and voicemails. If your employer has a written anti-harassment or anti-bullying policy, get a copy and follow the internal reporting procedures. Failing to use the employer’s complaint process can undermine a later legal claim.
Report the behavior in writing to your supervisor or HR, and keep copies of every report. Written complaints create a paper trail that puts the employer on notice (which matters for liability) and starts the clock on any retaliation claim if the employer responds by punishing you. If the conduct could be criminal, such as threats or physical assault, file a police report as well.
Virginia’s legal framework for workplace bullying rewards employees who act methodically. The statutes that do offer protection have specific deadlines, evidentiary requirements, and administrative steps that must be followed in order. Missing a filing window or failing to document the connection between mistreatment and a protected characteristic can close doors that would otherwise be open.