The Human Rights Commission is holding six formal inquiries into employers' conduct to examine whether they are complying with the positive duty to eliminate s-xual harassment and is monitoring another 18, while it has received 143 complaints of positive duty breaches since December 2023, according to the s-x discrimination commissioner.
The FWC has rejected a manager's general protections dismissal dispute claim after finding that she waited too long to withdraw a resignation supposedly given "in a state of distress" and holding that the employer's knowledge of her tendency "to make 'emotional' decisions" had no relevance.
An academic will tell a major conference that employers must create safe environments for workers to speak out and report harassment and bullying, with recent victimisation findings and rising 'hostile environment' complaints putting positive duty obligations in the spotlight.
BHP and Rio Tinto are facing class actions accusing them of failing to protect women who worked for them and their contractors against sexual assault, discrimination and harassment over the past 20 years.
