Maurice Blackburn's head of employment and industrial law, Josh Bornstein, says damages for discrimination and harassment "remain persistently low" but he expects an upwards trajectory as their impact has been "laid bare" and expectations are now clearer.
Employers should consider modifying working conditions for pregnant women to mitigate premature birth risks, according to a Monash University study that found risks increased with physically demanding jobs, long hours, shiftwork, and exposure to whole-body vibration.
Australia’s largest family-owned office supplies company unfairly sacked an account manager when it claimed she repudiated her contract by refusing to get a COVID-19 jab, the FWC has found.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a mineworker for failing to disclose his use of prescription medicinal cannabis on his days off, despite the fact he passed all drug tests and left a 32-hour buffer before the start of his working weeks.
In what is believed to be the first workplace breastfeeding discrimination ruling, a tribunal has found that a KFC franchisee indirectly discriminated against a worker when it told her to express milk in a tent, within a storeroom with no door.
Queensland Catholic school teachers and support staff have rejected an employer deal by a narrow margin after the IEU labelled it "punitive" and warned of major cuts, while staff in Religious Institute and Edmund Rice schools have convincingly voted up their unilateral offer.
Legal limits on the scope of bargaining mean that safety laws might provide a better avenue to address workplace climate change impacts than using enterprise agreements, according to an IR law academic.
Employers can comply with the new "positive duty" to eliminate sexual harassment and sex discrimination by fostering a respectful culture, ensuring workers have avenues to report incidents, and taking a "risk-based" approach to prevention, according to Human Rights Commission guidance.
A judge has thrown out a Bing Lee worker's race and sex discrimination case, saying it demonstrates "the perils of litigating hurt feelings", after she embellished events "which stem predominantly from unremarkable, collegiate 'small talk', and petty workplace disagreements to cast them in a more nefarious light".
