A Queensland employer, whose barman hit a customer in the head during an unruly work Christmas party, has lost its appeal against a $1.4 million damages ruling, after the Court of Appeal found the barman acted in the employer's interests.
A union's claim that a drug and alcohol testing clause in an enterprise agreement breaches the personal leave provisions of the Fair Work Act "demonstrates an unrealistic disconnect with reality", the Fair Work Commission has found.
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 NSW WCC President has upheld a finding that a deceased worker's unhealthy sedentary lifestyle was linked to her job, and her children are entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in workers' compensation.
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.
