In a shot in the arm for a paramedic transferred 350km away after an investigator found he bullied a female colleague, a full bench has ruled that bullying falls within a "spectrum of seriousness" and ordered the redetermination of whether he engaged in serious misconduct.
Workers should not refuse to resolve bullying at a workplace level just because they have an anti-bullying case underway, the FWC has found in dismissing a chief executive's claim against her husband during divorce proceedings, finding only a single instance of unreasonable conduct.
The FWC has found a supervisor's "grossly inappropriate" treatment of young subordinates amounted to a significant breach of his obligations and warranted his summary dismissal.
It would have been "sensible" for a worker to take up the "generous support" offered by his employer, rather than filing an "unwarranted" anti-bullying claim, the FWC has ruled, finding a performance management plan, letter of expectations and a warning amounted to reasonable management action.
The FWC has confirmed that there are only two elements of the "broad" definition of a "worker" under anti-bullying legislation, in rejecting a challenge to an unpaid board member's eligibility to bring a claim.
An executive on workers compensation for a "psychological injury" related to a stumble and strain while working from home has failed to secure stop-bullying orders against her employer and a HR business partner or establish they put her at risk by asking her to return to the office following a domestic violence incident.
The FWC has thrown out a gym attendant's bid for anti-bullying orders, but not before giving his former employer Spotless some advice on how to better respond to complaints and not "overstep" the mark when restricting the reporting of safety concerns.
A lawyer who failed to follow "the most basic of instructions" during FWC proceedings and proved to be "exceptionally difficult to deal with", experienced reasonable management action rather than bullying when DEWR raised issues about his tardiness, falling asleep in meetings and delays in producing work.
The FWC has ruled that an employee on workers' compensation leave is not eligible for anti-bullying protection because she was absent and not performing work when the alleged bullying occurred.
In a case that underlines the Commission's challenges in dealing with self-represented parties, a FWC member has refused to step back from hearing an anti-bullying claim, finding that a worker's 18 grounds for recusal, including the "unjust removal" of the worker's advocate from a hearing, had "no logical connection" with any possibility of bias.
