Figures suggest fewer Otago people were bullied or had their pay docked last year but that more had problems with the minimum wage.
Recently released Department of Labour statistics show there were fewer complaints about bullying and having pay unreasonably docked than in the year before.
The department's Dunedin office dealt with four bullying complaints and 14 complaints about pay being docked last year.
The figures were five and 19 the year before.
Nationally, there were 152 complaints about workplace bullying and 286 about having pay unreasonably docked.
There were 171 and 385, respectively, the year before.
Complaints about the minimum wage to the Dunedin office doubled to 28.
Nationally, they increased from 552 to 646.
Otago Southland Employers Association managing solicitor Diana Hudson was cautious about the low but "reassuring" local figures.
They might suggest most issues were resolved in the workplace.
Increasingly, employers had programmes in place to tackle issues such as bullying, and businesses were more aware of their wage obligations.
"These issues might come up more than the statistics suggest, but employers, workers and unions do work together to sort things out before they might get to the point of going to the department.
That's good news."
National Distribution Union regional organiser Ken Young said unions worked hard to help resolve problems before they got as far as the department.
That meant many more cases could be added to the official statistics.
The union's Auckland-based member support organiser, Chris Lennon, said calls from non-union workers suggested many New Zealanders simply did not know how to complain and so were not counted.
Workplaces Against Violence in Employment manager Hayden Olsen, who presents anti-harassment seminars across the country, said the bullying numbers were the tip of the iceberg.
Many incidents were addressed in-house, while many others were resolved by staff simply walking out.
"It's great to see a change, but there are probably many others going unreported in health, education, hospitality, and heavy industry or the trades. The problem hasn't gone away."
A study released this year suggested New Zealand had some of the highest rates of workplace bullying in the world, with nearly one in five employees being subjected to overbearing or belittling behaviour at work.
The survey of 1728 workers in the health, education, travel and hospitality sectors found 18% had been bullied and 75% had suffered workplace stress.
The department could not provide figures for the year ending May.
