An employee who admitted to sexually harassing a junior colleague has failed to overturn his dismissal, despite a commission finding his employer's four-year delay in taking disciplinary action was unreasonable.
Employers can bolster their prevention and response strategies for workplace sexual harassment by drawing on the expertise of those who have experienced it, according to an authority in the field.
An employer's announcement that it took "positive steps" to remove an employee accused of sexual harassment from the workplace has undermined its claim that he voluntarily resigned.
Employers might expect to see the Australian Human Rights Commission exercising its new compliance powers later this year, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody tells HR Daily.
"Naming and shaming" employers that breach the positive duty to prevent workplace s-xual harassment is an option for the AHRC, but its primary goal is collaboration, according to S-x Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody.
Online s-xual harassment can have a "chilling effect" on women, but employers are perceived as minimising its impact or viewing it as less serious than physical forms, research has found.
An application for orders to stop s-xual harassment had no reasonable prospects of success after the employee accused of sending "vile" messages resigned, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Touching a female colleague on the bottom was "sufficiently serious to justify summary dismissal", the Fair Work Commission has found in rejecting an employee's unfair dismissal claim.
An employer exposed its workers to a risk of violence and inappropriate s-xual behaviour, a court has found, and a regulator is urging all organisations to take "proactive, preventative action" to protect their staff.
It wasn't reasonable to transfer an employee accused of sexual harassment and ban him from speaking to female staff alone, a commission has found in a psychological injury appeal.
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.
