Employers can comply with the new "positive duty" to eliminate sexual harassment and sex discrimination by fostering a respectful culture, ensuring workers have avenues to report incidents, and taking a "risk-based" approach to prevention, according to Human Rights Commission guidance.
The FWC has upheld an employer's decision to sack an electrician for s-xually harassing behaviour that included asking a new supervisor on first meeting him whether he "liked to f-ck".
A female Qantas pilot suing the airline for alleged gender discrimination and s-xual harassment must re-plead her case after a court found her claim that the workplace was "hostile to women" to be "unsatisfactorily imprecise".
The looming enforcement of a positive duty on employers to prevent s-xual discrimination and harassment will require responsible "bystander interaction" as well as workplace leadership, according to the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission.
A UK tribunal has found that a male manager harassed a male worker by touching him inappropriately and suggestively singing a song about propositioning someone for s-x.
Workers s-xually harassed before the Secure Jobs, Better Pay changes came into effect in March will have to choose whether to omit complaints for conduct that occurred before that time to use the new provisions, or "make a potentially less advantageous application" using the old provisions, according to an employment law expert.
The FWC has found a worker's false reports about his colleagues created "psychosocial safety" risks and provided a valid reason for Virgin Australia to dismiss him.
The income and compensation caps for unfair dismissal claims are set to increase on Saturday, along with filing fees for a range of other applications.
The Albanese Government has ratified ILO conventions setting a minimum working age and seeking to prevent workplace harassment and violence, with Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor telling this year's international labour conference that tripartism "has never been so important".
