Discrimination and equity page 58 of 88

In a reply submission ahead of an FWC full bench hearing in Sydney tomorrow, United Voice and the AEU have hit out at employers' objections to the use of a 2005 work value case to establish metalworkers as an appropriate comparator in their equal pay claim for early childhood workers.

The Federal Circuit Court has rejected the adverse action claim of an obese security officer who accused his employer of unfairly targeting him, transferring him to a position he physically could not perform in another city and then sacking him because he challenged a proposed enterprise agreement.

The FWC has found a Coles Supermarkets baker who texted explicit images to a manager who responded "great d--k pic" did not sexually harass him as he appeared to initially take them as "a joke", but the tribunal has upheld his dismissal as his behaviour breached the retailer's code of conduct.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says "remarkable" growth in employers analysing their data for gender pay gaps means more than half now have formal strategies to address imbalances, but its annual scorecard reveals the overall $26,527 gender pay gap has decreased only marginally.

A tribunal has found Victoria's justice department indirectly discriminated against a prison worker who failed to declare his diabetes on engagement when its requirement to work unreasonable hours to meet a greater workload made his condition unstable.

A Lorna Jane employee with a pre-existing personality disorder has failed in her $570,000 bid to hold the retailer liable for a manager's Facebook spray and alleged bullying she claimed triggered her condition.

A Gorgon LNG project worker has lost his adverse action bid after a court found his complaints about offensive and racist conduct played no part in an HR manager's decision to make him redundant.

A company that allegedly told a 62-year old salesperson that he was too old, too deaf and was "hobbling around" with a "broken back" he would use to make a workers compensation claim has been ordered to pay $15,000 for "pain, suffering and humiliation" as part of a larger damages payout for age and disability discrimination.

In the FWO's first underpayment prosecution relying on race discrimination prohibitions in the Fair Work Act, a court has found a Tasmanian hotel and its manager deliberately short-changed a head chef and kitchen hand and expected them to work long hours, six days a week because of their Malaysian nationality and Chinese race.

A former HWL Ebsworth partner is pursuing the firm and its managing partner for allegedly discriminating against her by paying her less than male colleagues.