An FWC member has lashed BHP for its "astounding" failure to properly apply its 'fair play' policies when it sacked a mineworker for telling two female colleagues a crude joke.
The FWC has upheld Star Casino's sacking of a food and beverage server who said he tapped a colleague's bottom in an act of comradery, accused three workmates of entrapping him and threatened to "raise hell" for his employer.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of an Energy Australia employee who told one colleague she could not get pregnant due to her sexuality and suggested to another that he was related to Deepak Chopra because of his Indian descent.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a BHP Coal mineworker who punched a supervisor in the face and asked a colleague if she had "fake t-ts" at a company Christmas party, but has reinstated another employee dismissed for serious misconduct at the same event.
The FWC has refused to issue an interim anti-bullying order against an employer that excluded a cleaner from a workplace Christmas celebration and refused to give her leave on Australia Day, but has criticised its "poor and clumsy" handling of the worker's complaints.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a 63-year-old male employee who sent text messages calling a 37-year-old male colleague his "bitch" and "toy boy" and threatened to "molest" him and squeeze his testicles until it made him cry.
NSW Labor has laid out its plan to beef up the State's OHS, anti-discrimination and anti-bullying jurisdiction, including by reviving the industrial court and extending access to private sector employees, if it wins Saturday's election.
There is "no place for bawdy offensive alpha-male behaviour in the workplace", the FWC has found, in upholding the dismissal of a male worker for asking a female colleague for a kiss and telling another co-worker that he wanted to "f-ck" his sister.
Employers should be subject to a stronger onus to prevent s-xual harassment under the existing positive duty to provide safe workplaces under OHS laws, while the Fair Work Act should be amended to include explicit anti-harassment rights, according to Victoria Legal Aid.
