A lawyer exhibited obvious signs of distress from performing three roles and working excessive hours for the Coroners Court of Victoria, yet her managers decided her declining health was unrelated to work, and provided her with little support in her role or while she was on sick leave, an inquiry into her death has found.
An employer's "aggressive" reaction to a worker's public Facebook post, in which he claimed he came into contact with a COVID-19 case at work, was justified and not bullying, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A world-first study has found workers who sustain electrical injuries are more likely than other injured employees to take long-term sick leave, which could be explained by return-to-work processes overlooking the psychological impact of electric shock and burn incidents.
A major government employer's attempt to return an injured worker to full duties was an "abject failure" that caused the man to suffer mental injuries, a tribunal has found. It found the employer misapplied an independent medical examination report in its "unyielding" efforts to deny the man sick leave.
In a case examining the discretionary powers of a relatively new anti-bullying jurisdiction, an employer has failed to block a worker's stop-bullying claim by contending he was medically incapable of returning to work under his supervisor, the alleged bully.
Australian researchers have called for the long-term use of rigorous occupational hygiene measures and working-from-arrangements to reduce the risk of a resurgence of COVID-19, while paid pandemic leave schemes have been introduced in two more states, providing a financial incentive not to attend work while infectious.
A commission has admonished a worker, who was dismissed after repeatedly failing to attend independent medical examinations, for engaging in a "game of semantics" around her employer's requests and stymying its attempts to ensure she was fit to return to work.
Workers working remotely because of COVID-19 or other reasons are more likely to engage in self-endangering behaviours like working while ill, according to researchers, who say employees need self-management training.
A High Court majority has upheld Federal Government and employer appeals against a finding that workers performing 12-hour shifts are entitled to 10 individual days of sick or carer's leave per year under the National Employment Standards.
