A director sexually harassed an employee when he slapped her on the bottom and twice declared his feelings for her, the Federal Court has found in ordering his employer to pay $268k in damages and compensation.
An employee who repeatedly provided "unacceptable" medical certificates to cover his absence effectively abandoned his employment, the Fair Work Commission has found.
An employer's dysfunction enabled an "extremely flawed" dismissal of an employee, one week after it promoted her, and it then displayed a "lack of professionalism" during unfair dismissal proceedings, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Sharing offensive material with colleagues on social media was "abject stupidity", a Fair Work Commission full bench has found, but the conduct wasn't sufficiently connected to work to justify dismissal.
An employee was inappropriately accused of "criminal" conduct then subjected to a procedurally deficient investigation, the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding her unfair dismissal claim.
A commission has criticised an employee's complaint about a "racist and s-xually inappropriate" Microsoft Teams message, finding it unnecessarily consumed "countless" work hours and thousands of dollars in lost productivity.
An employee's claims that she was "intimidated", "mobbed" and "coerced" at work were "unfounded and nonsensical" allegations designed to "pollute" her general protections claim with scandal, the Fair Work Commission has chided.
Two related companies and a director, who sexually harassed multiple young employees, have been convicted and fined a total of $290k. Meanwhile the Federal Government is reportedly rolling back some casual reforms in the Closing Loopholes Bill.
An employer's "perseverance" with a proposal to reduce an employee's hours due to health and safety concerns forced her to quit, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in awarding her $29k in compensation.
The Fair Work Commission has chastised a supervisor who did nothing to stop an employee from being bullied, finding he failed to "model and enforce" respectful workplace behaviour.
All employers should consider putting in place a workplace s-xual harassment prevention plan, even though such plans are only expressly prescribed in one jurisdiction, according to a risk management expert.
Recent events have shone a spotlight on whistleblowing, placing employers firmly on notice that their response to a protected disclosure could be subject to intense scrutiny. Watch this webcast to understand the role HR plays in this challenging space.
