The Federal Court has ruled that the MUA took adverse action against five port workers when it distributed a poster calling them scabs for refusing to take part in a protected strike, finding its contents were worse than defamatory and invited the conclusion that they were "devoid of human dignity".
The FWC's new anti-bullying jurisdiction is likely to subject the "largely unregulated" workplace investigations industry to long-overdue scrutiny, and might give rise to questions about whether employees can lawfully refuse employer directions to cooperate, according to Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected an anti-bullying application from a paid carer, ruling he was not a "worker" under the new laws, while also outlining other arrangements that would fall outside the jurisdiction.
A Fair Work Commission full bench headed by the tribunal's president will hear submissions next week on whether unions can lodge bullying order applications on behalf of workers.
A test case that established that the Fair Work Commission is able to consider bullying that occurred before its anti-bullying jurisdiction took effect on January 1 has now been thrown out because the employer is not a "trading" corporation.
In its first substantive order under the new bullying jurisdiction, the Fair Work Commission has directed an employee not to have any unaccompanied contact with a co-worker or make comments about their clothes or appearance.
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that it is not prevented from considering behaviour that occurred before the start of the new bullying jurisdiction on January 1 this year when dealing with applications for orders to stop the conduct.
A high proportion of the 66 bullying claims made so far have been against supervisors, and many could be thwarted by the Fair Work Act's "reasonable management action" exemption, according to a Fair Work Commissioner.
