An accountant has won a rare interim anti-bullying order after the FWC agreed her employer "inappropriately" bypassed her lawyers by directly emailing a request that she attend a disciplinary meeting the following day.
The income and compensation caps for unfair dismissal claims are set to increase on Saturday, along with filing fees for a range of other applications.
A judge has rejected a business owner's claim of unlawful sacking because he repeatedly accused his co-owner brother of bullying and conflicts of interest, finding their "poisonous" relationship unrelated to his dismissal for ignoring a direction to stay away from the office while under investigation for allegedly harassing employees.
The AFP has won the right to be represented by an external lawyer in a "complex" anti-bullying case involving at least 18 witnesses to be heard by the FWC in a fortnight.
A female engineer suing BHP in an adverse action case claims a male colleague told her it was a compliment when he "volunteered" her to take notes at a meeting.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker for telling a colleague during an argument that "I'll f-ck you in the a-se", finding that the choice of words went "far beyond" simply swearing in the workplace and constituted s-xual harassment.
A senior FWC member accused of trying to intimidate a company director during conciliation, descending into the arena of advocacy and stating that he engaged in sexual harassment has refused to recuse herself from hearing an anti-bullying claim against him.
The FWC has slapped anti-bullying orders on a gated community's body corporate and its treasurer who taunted on-site caretakers about their claim of "living in misery" over the Christmas period because of unpaid invoices.
The FWC has delayed a board chair's urgent anti-bullying hearing until next month, amid concerns that the regional development board's attempt to sideline her is "usurping the role" of the responsible federal minister "as only the minister has the authority to suspend the chair".
The Human Rights Commission's latest survey of workplace sexual harassment shows little change in incidence over the past four years, while only two-thirds of workers reported their employer had anti-harassment policies and just one third had received training, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins told the National Press Club yesterday in a speech that also marked the first anniversary of her "Set the Standard" report on federal parliamentary workplaces.