An employer that ignored a worker's "clear signs of distress", and then told her she had to return to a role where managers bullied her, has been found liable for her psychological injury.
The Fair Work Commission should place little weight on workplace bullying investigations - when determining anti-bullying applications - unless it is satisfied the investigation was conducted "rigorously, impartially and independently", a leading employment lawyer says.
The Fair Work Commission has outlined a number of working arrangements that aren't covered by its anti-bullying jurisdiction or the model WHS Act, in rejecting a carer's application for stop-bullying orders against Centrelink employees.
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.
