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.
A court has found no basis for sidelining a lawyer accused of gaslighting a former Workpac employee who claims she lost her placement at Rio Tinto for reporting a colleague's s-xual assault, when her duties involved addressing findings from a s-xual harassment inquiry and a report by former S-x Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
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.
A court has found an employer who was in a relationship with an employee s-xually harassed her when he extorted her into having unwanted intercourse, setting compensation at $25,000, while rejecting her claim he sacked her for falling pregnant.
The FWC has ruled that an intoxicated FIFO female mineworker rubbing up against and trying to hold hands with her male colleagues when commuting to her worksite amounted to harassment and s-xual harassment and warranted BHP dismissing her.
The FWC has found a long-serving BHP Coal worker who had "clearly not adjusted to the modern workplace" s-xually-harassed two colleagues, but a rushed investigative process and lack of a proper opportunity to respond rendered his dismissal unfair.
WA's Cook Labor Government has introduced legislation to lift casual loading from 20% to 25%, give some workers an enforceable right to request flexibility, and empower the IRC to discipline industrial agents, but it continues to lag on portable LSL.
