Log in or become a subscriber

A commission has refused to strike out parts of a worker's stop-bullying claim, despite accepting some of the alleged conduct didn't occur while she was "at work".

New South Wales Industrial Relations Commissioner Christopher Muir said that because the non-work allegations might potentially be relevant in assessing any prospects of future bullying, it wasn't appropriate to remove them from the application.

The proceedings pertained to an executive assistant's application for stop-bullying orders, filed in April this year against her employer, Snowy Monaro Regional Council, and an individual councillor.

(Since October last year, the NSW IRC has had powers to issue stop-bullying orders, and to order up to $100,000 in compensation for victims of workplace bullying or sexual harassment – read more in this HR Daily article. This was the Commission's first published decision in a stop-bullying matter, followed closely by another – see further below.)

The worker's allegations included that the councillor bullied her when he viewed her LinkedIn profile in March this year, and posted about it on his own social media accounts...