At a public hearing in Hobart yesterday, Workplace Standards operations director Neale Buchanan said the rate of complaints about harassment at work had doubled this year, with 26 recorded to date.

Mr Buchanan told the committee that the majority of those complaints came from hospitality workers, accounting for 17 per cent, followed by retail at 13.8 per cent.

The committee heard Tasmania had no independent body to provide early intervention, such as mediation, when bullying occurred in the workplace.

The focus of Workplace Standards was on investigating and prosecuting breaches of occupational health and safety regulations.

``We get these things after the damage has been done,'' Mr Buchanan said. ``More often it's at the tail end and someone has sustained serious mental harm as a result.''

Anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks said young people were unlikely to lodge formal complaints.

``I suspect that there's a group who are highly vulnerable to bullying who are less likely to report it,'' Ms Banks said.

Unions Tasmania secretary Kevin Harkins told the committee that the authorities were not resourced adequately to handle workplace bullying.

Mr Harkins said the type of harassment had changed from overt ``initiation-type stuff'' to subtle undermining of an employee by a ``workplace psychopath''.

``Bullying and harassment is now, in my view, the largest issue that we have in the workplace and I don't think anyone has their head around what they do about it,'' Mr Harkins said.

Nicole Wells, of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, which represents workers of state-owned electricity retailer Aurora Energy, also gave evidence.

Ms Wells said she believed workplace bullying was most common in government businesses because there was no accountability.

She said the system was stressful and expensive for complainants.