A line manager unreasonably contributed to a worker's psychiatric injury by describing a complaint against him as a "serious" allegation of "harassment" in the first minutes of the very first meeting on the issue, an appeals commission has confirmed.
A supervisor who decided a worker was hard to manage and "needed to be dealt with", traumatised and psychologically injured her by intimidating her during a counselling meeting, the Federal Court has confirmed on appeal.
A worker's actions in "counselling" and psychologically injuring a colleague cannot be considered reasonable action "taken by an employer" unless the worker's role involves managing and disciplining the colleague, a tribunal has ruled.
A tribunal has upheld an employer's actions in dismissing a worker for misconduct on his first day back at work after suffering mental health issues, but concedes it could have handled the early signs of his erratic behaviour differently and provided more support.
A tribunal full bench has rejected a major employer's claim that it wasn't required to consider a worker's personal circumstances, which made her more susceptible to injury, when undertaking "reasonable" administrative action against her.
The High Court has quashed a ruling that a public servant who was sacked for using Twitter to criticise her employer was the victim of unreasonable administrative action and entitled to workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Performance management and disciplinary processes shouldn't be scrapped if a worker becomes ill or makes a psychological injury claim during the process, but communication is key to managing their expectations, a senior workplace lawyer says.
A major employer has been blocked from appealing against a ruling that a series of injury-causing meetings didn't satisfy the definition of "performance appraisal" because it was a "vague, continuing, informal process".
An employer has been ordered to pay an injured worker $1.4 million in damages, after a court found it was vicariously liable for the acts of an aggressive and physically abusive manager who believed he was appointed to "kick" subordinates "in the head" after an industry downturn.
A full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal from a worker - whose injury dispute helped reform the administrative action test - against a finding that her injury arose from a performance appraisal and wasn't compensable.
