"Serious" flaws in an employer's s-xual harassment investigation, in tandem with its expectation the worker would continue working alongside her alleged harasser, forced her to resign, the FWC has found.
A tribunal has awarded a worker s-xually harassed and assaulted by her boss $140,000 in damages, based on the nature of the conduct and the continued "profound and significant detrimental impact" on her quality of life, plus $10,000 in aggravated damages and $26,500 in costs.
A HSU senior industrial officer who claimed a branch secretary s-xually harassed her has discontinued her adverse action and s-x discrimination action that had been due to surface in the FWC yesterday.
A senior industrial officer is accusing a Victorian HSU branch's secretary of s-xually harassing her, in a case listed in the FWC on Monday, but the leader strenuously denies the allegations and the union's management committee says it could not substantiate most of the claims.
The FWC has ordered reinstatement for a professor who sent "intimate and romantic" messages to a student, including a photo of himself in his boxers, finding that his seven-year unblemished record since his recently-uncovered relationship mitigated his behaviour.
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.
A newly-approved federal code of practice provides "practical guidance to employers" to help protect workers against workplace sexual harassment, according to workplace relations minister Murray Watt.
The FWC has, at the same time as rejecting the unfair dismissal claim of a university lecturer who "relentlessly" pursued a personal relationship with a student, held that he s-xually harassed her and that his dishonesty provided a further valid reason to sack him.
