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.
A couple has been cleared to pursue Telstra over claims it is vicariously responsible for their alleged s-xual harassment by a former employee using confidential contact details sourced through the telco.
A court has ordered a cafe to pay a teenage worker $7300 compensation, including $6000 for hurt and humiliation, after it took unlawful adverse action because of his temporary disability when it dismissed him for calling in sick due to a chest infection.
Employment rights legal centre JobWatch says a client survey suggests most employers are failing to take internal complaints of workplace sexual harassment and discrimination seriously or to adequately protect employees, prompting recommendations to expand positive duty and vicarious liability provisions, and actively monitor compliance.
A jeweller who showered a manager with gifts and compliments, along with unrequited declarations of his affections and a slap on the bottom, is facing a record damages payout for sexually harassing her and victimising her for complaining about it, while his law firm is under fire for the "intimidatory and vindictive" tone of its correspondence.
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".
Sydney Water has failed to quash a FWC finding that clears the way for a former employee whose image was used in a suggestive OHS poster to pursue more than $1 million in damages on the basis its botched response forced her to resign.
A tribunal has awarded a s-xually harassed and assaulted beauty therapist $150,000 in general damages, equal to $70 per day for the six years she has suffered and will likely continue to suffer the effects of the conduct.
The Australian arm of an international pest control company is facing claims its chief executive and HR manager victimised and discriminated against its business development manager because she accused a colleague of repeatedly s-xually harassing her.
