A high proportion of the 70-odd workers who have applied for stop-bullying orders so far claim they are being bullied by their supervisors, but the Fair Work Act's broad definition of "reasonable management action" could thwart many of these claims, according to FW Commissioner Anna Lee Cribb.
Workers who apply to the Fair Work Commission for a stop-bullying order cannot claim they were "bullied at work" prior to 1 January 2014, because the anti-bullying laws didn't apply at the time, the Australian Industry Group will argue in a test case today.
The NSW WCC has found that workplace conflict didn't cause a worker's psychological injury, and that the timeframe for an investigation into his alleged misconduct was reasonable.
Asking colleagues who exhibit suicidal warning signs, such as talking about tidying up affairs, if they are suicidal won't "tip them over the edge", but "provide a starting point for a solution", a new suicide position statement says.
A psychologically injured worker who engaged in a "tug of war" with her supervisor during a "momentary lapse of judgement" should not have been sacked, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
In its first anti-bullying decisions, the Fair Work Commission has rejected two applications because the alleged bullying victims didn't pay their filing fees. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory has convicted 121 people under new laws aimed at protecting workers from violence.
A toxic safety culture not only arises from inadequate processes and procedures, but when workers are cynical and "game-playing" surrounds the reporting of injuries, according to risk expert Robert Long.
The Fair Work Commission received 44 applications for anti-workplace-bullying orders in January, well short of the foreshadowed average of nearly 70 a week.
