Employers should be subject to a stronger onus to prevent s-xual harassment under the existing positive duty to provide safe workplaces under OHS laws, while the Fair Work Act should be amended to include explicit anti-harassment rights, according to Victoria Legal Aid.
The FWC has told an employer that it must accept responsibility for a "suboptimal" workplace culture that it could have reset before sacking two senior wharf workers who verbally abused a female colleague, but it upheld their dismissals for behaviour that "crossed the line".
A company that withdrew an offer of employment when it discovered the potential employee's criminal record has paid her $2500 compensation and revised its global recruitment and HR practices, after the AHRC found it discriminated against her.
Social media "moves the dial" on harassing workplace behaviour and will contribute to more litigation flowing through to the courts, according to Australian Human Resources Institute chair Peter Wilson.
A leading workplace academic has called on legislators to consider a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation to impose a legal obligation to protect workers from sexual harassment, with breaches resulting in "substantial financial penalties".
The FWC has rejected a dismissed employee's contention that a company's duty of care extended to anticipating that he would act in a violent and threatening manner towards a co-worker.
The pitfalls of self-representation have been highlighted by an FWC full bench that found it would be "futile" to hear a former chief executive's anti-bullying case because his notice of appeal "expressly" indicated he was seeking an unnecessary order.
The FWC has upheld Toyota's sacking of a supervisor for improperly exercising his power, finding his "benevolent sexism" and inappropriate behaviour towards a group of young, female fixed-term contractors created a weird, dirty and unhealthy environment.
In the wake of the public spotlight on the Qantas "inclusive language" guidelines, one of its baggage handlers has failed to convince the FWC that tearing a colleague's shirt, shoving him against a locker and telling him to f-ck off back to his country were not sackable offences but rather a bit of "argy bargy" between friends, consistent with the workplace culture.
An external investigation has made three adverse findings of "s-xually inappropriate" conduct against the former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle.
