It was "difficult to understand" how an employee's private sexual conversations with someone outside of work became a work-related matter, a commission has commented in upholding his appeal.
The Fair Work Commission has considered in detail what constitutes sexual harassment, and what doesn't, in upholding the dismissal of an employee who denied his messages about "love" and requests for a date had any sexual element.
The "destabilising" effect an employee had on the workplace was the reason for her termination, and not the bullying complaint she filed just before it, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled in rejecting her adverse action claim.
A manager's withdrawal from a "fair and reasonable" performance management process left her employer with no choice but to sack her, or it risked others disregarding its directions in the future, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
After being ordered to reinstate an employee sacked for physical violence, an employer has failed to convince a Fair Work Commission full bench that the earlier decision applied the wrong legal test for self-defence.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected that an employee was unfairly dismissed for physically assaulting a coworker, despite flaws in the termination process and the overall harshness of the decision.
Ernst & Young has defended terminating a senior partner who was charged with assault after hours spent drinking with staff and clients, on the basis his conduct was likely to harm the firm's interests.
An employee has been chastised for "grasping at excuses for his unacceptable conduct", with the Fair Work Commission accepting he posed a "serious and imminent risk" to workplace health and safety and was fairly sacked.
Relying on complaints from seven years ago was "misconceived", the Fair Work Commission has ruled, in finding a worker accused of sexual misconduct should be reinstated.
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.
