A manager's fixation on workplace bullying meant he overlooked his employer's financial reasons for dismissing him as part of a leadership overhaul, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled, in rejecting his adverse action claim.
An employer has won a vexatious proceedings order against a former employee, after the Federal Court accepted he posed a substantial risk of ongoing litigation if left "unchecked".
A people and culture team "singularly failed" to meet with an employee in a timely manner to discuss his redeployment opportunities, meaning his redundancy wasn't genuine, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A general protections claimant can't proceed with her action against an employer she hadn't begun working for, after the Fair Work Commission found the parties had entered a binding contract, but there wasn't yet an employment relationship capable of being terminated.
Accepting an employee's resignation without clarifying a misunderstanding about her role amounted to a constructive dismissal, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Being sacked for serious misconduct after regularly complaining of workplace bullying and harassment would have made a manager feel like "a grave injustice had been perpetrated", the Federal Circuit Court has accepted in adverse action proceedings.
A manager should have realised that a $2.2 million offer to settle his long-running adverse action case was the best outcome he could realistically expect, the Federal Court has commented, in making a costs order against him.
Employers and HR practitioners continue to make some avoidable mistakes after dismissing employees, which increase their likelihood of losing claims in the Fair Work Commission, a workplace lawyer says.
Resigning may well have been the right decision for an employee who didn't trust HR to take her workplace complaints seriously, according to the Fair Work Commission, but this didn't mean the employer's conduct forced her hand.
A safety-critical employee, who turned up to work in an impaired and unfit state to perform his role, has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission his misconduct wasn't "serious" and he shouldn't have been summarily sacked.
Workplace bullying complaints continue to pose significant challenges for employers, including where the behaviour doesn't meet the legal definition of bullying or the threshold to make a claim. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to understand key lessons from cases where bullying complaints interact with other claims and issues.
What constitutes "best practice" when managing neurodiversity at work is evolving all the time. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to learn how to embed neuroinclusive practices into HR programs and every stage of the employment lifecycle.
