Meetings to address interpersonal conflict led an employee to believe she was being bullied, a commission has ruled, in rejecting this perception was part of her "delusional" thought processes.
An employer must pay workers' compensation for a psychological injury, even though its former employee didn't show signs of mental ill health while she was working, was facing multiple stressors in her personal life, and lodged her claim outside the required timeframe.
Controversial reforms aiming to "stabilise" the NSW workers' compensation scheme will instead "radically reduce" employees' psychological injury rights, according to critics of the proposals.
After abandoning its own disciplinary policy and prematurely deciding an employee was guilty of misconduct, an employer couldn't argue its "reasonable action" was the predominant cause of her psychological injury.
"Any reasonable adult worker" should understand that using offensive language to describe a CEO and other employees constitutes misconduct, a tribunal has noted in dismissing a sacked employee's application for reinstatement.
A medical opinion stating it was "possible" that a disciplinary meeting "may have had an impact" on an employee's psychological condition did not come close to clearing her employer of liability for the injury, a tribunal has found.
A disciplinary meeting was not the main cause of an employee's psychological injury, but it was the final straw for him after a year of workplace hazing and bullying, a commission has found.
"Aggressive and deprecating" comments from a supervisor couldn't be considered reasonable management actions, a commission has noted in finding an employer liable for a psychological injury.
Costly legal disputes continue to highlight the many risks employers face when managing, disciplining, or dismissing employees while they are absent, injured or incapacitated. Attend this webinar for an up-to-date review of the legal framework applying to workplace absenteeism, injury and incapacity, and lessons from recent case law.
