A senior FWC member has refused to stay a former Sydney Trains employee's stop bullying application while he pursues reinstatement through the courts, observing that mud would "stick" to his accused ex-colleagues as long as the matter went unresolved.
In a decision underlining the challenges for the Commission in managing vulnerable self-represented employees in its bullying jurisdiction, a full bench has rejected an employee's claim that a tribunal member's procedures were responsible for her mental distress.
The FWC has cleared the way for a veteran's advocate to bring a bullying claim against RSL Queensland and 14 of its directors, after establishing that his volunteer services for one of its 240 sub-branches was in fact work performed for the constitutionally-covered state organisation.
The FWC has found that because an Adelaide council is not a constitutional corporation the tribunal cannot deal with cross anti-bullying orders sought by its acting chief executive and one of its elected councillors, but it says other councils might be trading corporations covered by its jurisdiction.
The head of the FWC's bullying jurisdiction and a public service commissioner who oversees implementation of domestic violence workplace policies say they have ditched labels and are using more empowering approaches to dealing with domestic violence and bullying.
The FWC has thrown out an aged care worker's anti-bullying claim, finding her employer had taken reasonable management action and carried it out in a reasonable manner, while she was the one with a pattern of inappropriate conduct.
The FWC has found that a combination of three factors, including a "significant" mental illness, justified extending time for an unfair dismissal claim lodged 164 days late by a former Woolworths worker.
The FWC has refused to take the "extraordinary step" of temporarily restraining an employer from appointing an employee to fill the role of an allegedly bullied worker.
A self-represented worker who is pursuing a bullying claim in the FWC would be placed at "further disadvantage" if her employer and two managers already being assisted by in-house HR specialists won the right to legal representation, the tribunal has ruled.
