Mental health conditions remain a key "disruptor" in Australia's workers' comp schemes, but a low-intensity cognitive behaviour therapy program and early intervention are facilitating recovery, Comcare's CEO has told the National Workers' Compensation Summit.
Occupational medicine experts have made a case for better management of electrical injuries in the workplace, after finding cognitive and psychological problems are prevalent in workers who have received electric shocks.
A worker is suing his employer for psychological injuries allegedly caused by the stress and humiliation of being pushed onto a stage and forced to dance and sing during a work conference.
Generational gaps in the workplace can lead to hazardous misunderstandings and conflict. Employers need to ensure managers are flexible enough to accommodate younger workers' different approaches to work, a psychologist and employee assistance expert says.
In a long-running and complicated bullying case, the Fair Work Commission has agreed to expand the stop-bullying orders already in place against a company director, including by limiting his involvement with a worker's return-to-work process, after finding more instances of bullying had occurred.
An employer is liable for a worker's psychological injury sustained after a distressing meeting on new stringent overtime allocation policies, a tribunal has found.
A commission has upheld an employer's bid for orders for a psychologically injured worker to undergo a psychiatric assessment, in the lead up to its appeal against a finding that her injury was caused by verbal abuse from her supervisor.
For an absence from work to count as an "authorised recess", there must be an expectation by the employer that the worker will return to work, a court has found in a case involving a worker who was injured driving to his doctor.
A large employer allowed a conflict between a worker and his manager to persist for so long that the mental health of both workers deteriorated, the Fair Work Commission has found.
The very act of formalising a workplace mental health strategy can improve employee wellbeing and organisational culture, according to research commissioned by the Australian Industry Group and including six business case studies, which identifies job design as an overlooked wellbeing tool.
