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.
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.
