An internal staff survey in the Victorian Education Department has found that 38% of the respondents had witnessed workplace bullying in the previous 12 months, according to a report in The Age.

The questionnaire of 1191 staff, which was not sanctioned by the department, found that 20% had experienced bullying in 2013, compared to 15% in 2009.

It also found that only 2% of respondents had submitted a formal complaint about bullying, compared to 3% in 2011.

However, the department said the survey findings did not correlate with other parts of the survey, which found the department to have a "supportive and collaborative work environment".

"We were surprised by this result because it is not consistent with complaints or related OHS issues that you would normally associate with an organisation that had a poor workplace culture," a department spokesman told The Age.

The release of the survey comes less than three weeks before the introduction of new national anti-bullying laws. From January 1 2014, new laws will allow all workers to take workplace bullying complaints to the Federal industrial tribunal, the Fairwork Commission.

Under the changes to the Fair Work Act, any worker who reasonably believes he or she has been bullied can seek an order from the Commission for an order for the bullying to stop.

Despite the Commission being able to award compensation, if an employer does not act to stop the bullying (after an order has been made) workers can apply to the Federal Court, which can impose fines of up to $51,000 on a organisation and $10,200 on an individual.