Sexual harassment page 21 of 23

A tribunal has ordered a hotel and its night caretaker to pay more than $300,000 in damages for the s-xual assault of a female employee after he appeared naked in her bedroom and made unsolicited advances.

The FWC has ruled that a cabin crew supervisor, who failed to convince the tribunal last year that his sacking for alleged sexual harassment was unfair, must now pay costs for continuing to pursue his claim after he rejected a $20,000 settlement offer.

The Federal Court has awarded a ship's officer $100 in nominal damages for her employer's breach of her employment contract, finding it could not have foreseen that its flawed investigation of allegations she was bullied by her captain would lead her to stop working in the maritime industry altogether.

Despite opposition from an employer, a tribunal has agreed to suppress the identity of a man who claims he is being sexually harassed, discriminated against and victimised in his male-dominated workplace because of his imputed homosexuality.

Almost one-in-10 Australian workers now experience bullying, according to a report released this week, with those employed in the utilities and government administration and defence industries suffering among the highest levels of harassment.

A cabin crew supervisor dismissed for s--ually harassing his colleagues has failed to convince the FWC that he was the victim of the airline's workplace culture.

Responsibility for gender equity strategies should be partially devolved from centralised HR departments to line managers, and training to combat "unconscious bias" in selection processes should be mandated for supervisors and managers, according to a new report on barriers to women's career advancement in higher education.

Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says a culture of sexual harassment in the Australian Federal Police is so "pervasive" that almost one in two females and 20% of males have experienced it in the past five years.

A university academic, who sought to reinstate an appeal against the Federal Court's rejection of her sex discrimination claim, now faces a total costs bill of almost $1 million due to her "litigious and adversarial approach" to proceedings.

A construction company - which came to the attention of the Heydon Royal Commission for paying AWU membership fees on behalf of employees, even if they were not members - has been ordered to pay $1.3 million in damages after admitting it failed to prevent a female labourer being s-xually harassed and bullied by her workmates.