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.
A FWC member has rejected claims that she "badgered" a worker seeking anti-bullying orders after establishing that, contrary to his version of events, he would not be required to provide supporting documents until he "pressed the button" on arbitration.
The FWC has told two drone operators to trim their anti-bullying claims against officers from regulatory authority CASA after emphasising that its jurisdiction does not extend to picking over another body's administrative decisions in isolation.
Misinterpretation of "curt or abrupt" messages between a remote manager and worker and "unhelpful" accusations of "frivolous and vexatious" complaints did not amount to bullying, but the manager might have needed support to better supervise his remote team, the FWC has found.
A FWC member has permitted an anti-bullying hearing to go ahead despite her concerns that the worker and her representative misled the tribunal when they denied that the worker had accepted a job offer.
In a decision delving deeply into the statutory definition of bullying, a senior FWC member has observed that allowances should be made for "some degree of exasperation or tension" between managers and those they supervise.
The FWC has waved through a former company director's late unfair dismissal claim after accepting evidence that the deadline fell on the same day as her treatment for a heart condition allegedly exacerbated by her ex-husband "vengefully terminating" her employment.
Former Toll subsidiary Team Global Express has avoided anti-bullying orders through the resignation of a perpetrator and taking significant measures to remove the risk of further substandard conduct, but the FWC has called on it to address a "failure of local leadership".
