Maurice Blackburn's head of employment and industrial law, Josh Bornstein, says damages for discrimination and harassment "remain persistently low" but he expects an upwards trajectory as their impact has been "laid bare" and expectations are now clearer.
A judge has thrown out a Bing Lee worker's race and sex discrimination case, saying it demonstrates "the perils of litigating hurt feelings", after she embellished events "which stem predominantly from unremarkable, collegiate 'small talk', and petty workplace disagreements to cast them in a more nefarious light".
"Australia's unluckiest job applicant" has been ordered to pay a labour hire company indemnity costs of $44,000 for a "time-wasting" failed discrimination case, in which he sought $115,000 in compensation and refused an early $5000 settlement offer.
The Federal Court has found that an aged care home favoured its Filipino workers over a Chinese nurse, and took adverse action against her when it summarily dismissing her because she made complaints about other employees.
A UK tribunal has found that a job interviewer asked seven questions that could be "reasonable and entirely innocuous" individually, but cumulatively could constitute racial discrimination.
A tribunal member has thrown out a lawyer's discrimination case, accusing him of becoming a "serial pest" after he filed multiple discrimination claims against employers for failing to hire him, including a recent matter in which he claimed "very attractive and beautiful" interviewers humiliated him.
The WA Court of Appeal has thrown out a nursing assistant's challenge to a judge's rejection of her $750,000 defamation claim, which she brought against her employer because a registered nurse accused her of saying "I hate working with Africans".
An employer must pay more than $50,000 to compensate a supervisor it victimised by forcing her to take leave and change roles after she complained that a male colleague sexually-harassed her when he stared at her breasts.
The FWC has compensated a worker sacked for making "racist" comments, finding her employer's handling of her dismissal "appalling" and that it had been "very unfair to label her a racist person".
A worker who claims FWC President Iain Ross admitted to having a problem with commissioners' "colonial attitude" has lost his Federal Court bid to sue the tribunal for racial discrimination.
