A real estate agency's last-minute implementation of a new anti-bullying policy wasn't enough to stop the FWC from ordering it to cease bullying a property consultant that its sales administrator deleted as a Facebook friend after likening her to a "naughty little schoolgirl running to the teacher".
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
The head of the Fair Work Commission's anti-bullying panel has highlighted the key cases in the new jurisdiction's first year, and revealed that many employers are failing to follow their own internal procedures when dealing with bullying complaints.
The FWC is expecting a "significant number" of bullying applications and inquiries next year and has released a model for dealing with them and a draft benchbook, as well as announcing Commissioner Peter Hampton's appointment as the head of its anti-bullying panel.
With Australia's new federal bullying regime set to take effect next year, the FWC has turned to the UK's national workplace tribunal for its experiences in dealing with bullying and harassment complaints.
Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO, has received a mixed report card from an independent investigation into allegations of workplace bullying, which found that while the organisation's work culture wasn't "toxic", its policies had encouraged a "blame the victim" approach.