Some workers could be bound by the conditions of a stop-bullying order for decades, in theory, with the Fair Work Commission not being required to apply timeframes or expiry dates to orders.
Managers set the tone for respectful and harassment-free workplaces and should be careful when taking part in a swearing culture, the Queensland IRC has stressed in awarding an injured worker compensation.
The anti-bullying application that led to a finding that the Fair Work Commission could consider pre-2014 incidents in such cases has been dismissed because the applicant's employer isn't a constitutionally-covered business.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered a workplace bully to refrain from commenting on his victim's clothes or appearance, as well as imposing a condition on the victim, in its first substantive anti-bullying order.
New Zealand's new workplace bullying prevention guide is superior to Australia's for a number of reasons, including that it recognises "institutional bullying", which helps employers determine if their culture is creating the problem, an OHS consultant says.
The Fair Work Commission has found that it can consider work incidents that occurred before January when determining applications for stop-bullying orders, and rejected an employer's claim that bullying was legally "neutral" before the new anti-bullying provisions took effect.
A former Quarantine employee who claimed workers' compensation nine years after allegedly sustaining a bullying-related psych injury, and then failed to appeal against an AAT decision in favour of Comcare within the required time, has had his case thrown out by the Federal Court.
The Federal Government's termination of Safe Work Australia member grants will diminish the ability of unions and employer groups to improve workplace safety, a Labor Senator has warned. Meanwhile, the Coalition's plan to amend the new anti-bullying laws has been omitted from it first tranche of Fair Work changes, introduced yesterday.
