A former university academic who unsuccessfully claimed she had been sexually harassed by two colleagues has been ordered to pay a $900,000 indemnity costs bill after the Federal Court found she rejected a "generous" settlement offer despite legal advice that she was unlikely to succeed.
Workers need to be protected from employers that argue they took action against an employee because of the impact of the person exercising a workplace right rather than the actual exercise of the right, a judge has ruled in a dissenting judgment.
The Federal Court has criticised the CFMEU for its "deplorable" approach to complying with the law, ordering it to pay a penalty of more than $100,000 for a series of breaches on a wind farm construction site and to stop interfering in the project.
A full Federal Court has rejected a paramedic's attempt to overturn a finding that he was dismissed because of his aggressive behaviour towards management rather than because he exercised his workplace rights to complain about his job.
A court has accepted that a transport company made an ill employee's position redundant as part of a genuine restructure, but found it took unlawful adverse action when it detrimentally altered her position because of her mental condition.
A union organiser has failed to convince a court that a HSU branch sacked her because she had failed to join a preferred Labor Party faction or because of presumption that she was a lesbian or bis-xual.
The Federal Court has fined the CFMEU's mining and energy division $45,000 for taking adverse action against a former Pilbara organiser after the AWU complained that he was a "Trot" who was "bagging" the union.
In further legal fallout from the 2012 Grocon dispute, the Federal Court has ruled that the CFMEU and eight of its officials unlawfully coerced the company to agree to its demand to employ union-nominated shop stewards when they blocked access to the Myer Emporium and McNab Avenue sites.
The Federal Circuit Court has rejected a worker's claim that she was dismissed because she refused to work overtime with a co-worker rather than because she had assaulted her several months before.
A Federal Court full bench has reversed the reinstatement of a government solicitor who had been found to have suffered adverse action when dismissed while suffering depression.
