Victoria's imminent restrictions on non-disclosure agreements might help curb workplace s-xual harassment secrecy, but an expert says their ultimate success hinges on lawyers abandoning an "entrenched culture" around settlements.
Large employers are set to gain an extra 12 months to bed down new "genuine and measurable" gender equality targets before they have to identify fresh ones and start the next three-year reporting cycle.
Working from home arrangements have been a big success in the Australian Public Service, with a mere handful of disputes about flexible work requests, the CPSU has told a Senate inquiry into a bill aimed at enshrining WFH rights.
The Victorian Government's new bill that restricts the use of non-disclosure agreements in settlements of workplace sexual harassment cases will enable workers to terminate them after a year, with just seven days notice.
The NT Anti-Discrimination Commission has warned that the Finocchiaro Government's legislation that reinstates the exemption for religious schools to discriminate in employment could lead to LGBTQ+ workers, women and workers of other faiths facing disciplinary action or dismissal.
The Minns Government has passed major reforms that establish anti-bullying and s-xual harassment jurisdictions in the IRC and allow workers to seek preventative orders and up to $100,000 in damages, while also significantly lifting the small claims cap.
Workers in NSW will need to secure a ruling from the State IRC that bullying or harassment has occurred before they seek compensation for a related psychological injury, under draft legislation that will also add gender equality as an object of state workplace laws.
In a judgment raising the possibility that State workplace protections could extend to independent contractors under the Fair Work Act, Federal Court Chief Justice Debra Mortimer has today dismissed Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's bid to strike out a freelance pianist's adverse action claim that it discriminated against him by cancelling a performance after he accused Israel of committing war crimes.
