Referring to an employee's "body proportions" when directing her to comply with a uniform policy was unacceptable, but it didn't force her to resign, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The growing number and diversity of employment-related class actions suggest they won't drop off "any time soon", and positive duty non-compliance is a key risk area to watch, a lawyer warns.
The redeployment obligations confirmed by the High Court today might be "pretty straightforward" in obvious hypothetical scenarios, but they're likely to become "very tricky" for employers operating in the real world, a lawyer says.
The High Court has this morning handed down an important decision that unsettles traditional thinking about the scope of employers' redeployment obligations during workplace restructures.
A "very poor" attendance rate combined with repeatedly failing to notify or explain absences meant there were valid reasons to sack an employee, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A paid agent who acted unreasonably while representing a worker in unfair dismissal proceedings must pay an employer nearly $29k, after a Fair Work Commission bench denied his appeal against the costs order.
It wasn't discriminatory to seek confirmation that an employee was fit to perform his duties, after he made "alarming" comments during a performance review meeting, a tribunal has ruled.
"Reasonable schemes reasonably implemented can miscarry without rendering them unreasonable," a commissioner has stressed, in rejecting the psychological injury claim of an employee who had a "troubling propensity for embellishment".
Sacking an employee for acting aggressively towards a woman wasn't evidence of a "corporate culture that favoured females over males", a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Despite signs of a "permissive attitude" towards name-calling at work, an employer was entitled to reprimand an employee for racial stereotyping a colleague, a commission has found.
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.
