Bench to hear employer bid to extend award variation; Heydon allegations referred to police; Union bites back at construction watchdog; Unpaid pandemic leave to end on June 30.
A 55-year-old former cabin crew manager is seeking $1.7 million in lost wages and super, plus future lost earnings until retirement and at least $200,000 in damages from Qantas for alleged sexual discrimination and harassment some 17 to 30 years ago, according to court documents the airline sought to keep under wraps.
The Federal Court will rule tomorrow on a Qantas bid to block access to documents lodged by a former employee who claims she has been subjected to s-xual and disability discrimination and s-xual harassment.
A senior FWC member has cited the ubiquity of "incomplete [or] incorrect" applications received by the tribunal in rejecting a regulatory body's $36,000 costs bid against a former employee who mistakenly claimed discrimination on the basis of s-x.
A court has given a publicly-listed veterinary pharmaceutical company the go-ahead to pursue its former chief executive for a significant portion of more than US$400,000 paid to settle assault and s-x discrimination cases brought by two members of its marketing team.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in her report of the national inquiry into sexual harassment has recommended the FWC gain new powers to issue orders to halt the conduct, similar to its ability to make anti-bullying orders.
The FWC has rejected allegations that a female supervisor's description of a worker as a "big threatening scary man" amounted to s-xual discrimination, finding no evidence that he was treated less favourably because he was a male.
The Federal Court has ordered costs against a CSIRO scientist who falsely accused colleagues of s-xual harassment and discrimination, while also fining the agency for a complaint-handling failure it sought to "trivialise".
In a decision pointing out the multiple failures of an upmarket Adelaide supermarket to properly handle a juice bar worker's complaint that "the chef just touched my arse", a tribunal has ordered the company and her former colleague to jointly pay her $30,000 in damages.
The gap between male and female full-time earnings has narrowed slightly over the past year, but there has been a substantial rise in adoption of domestic violence policies and leave by employers, according to the WGEA.