Workplace harassment can happen in a number of different environments, not just in the office as was upheld by a recent ruling in the NSW district court. In the first case of its kind, NSW teacher Christine Mickle successfully sued a former student for defamation via popular social media platform Twitter. The student was ordered […]
Keiko Adachi v Qantas Airways Limited 12 Feb 2014. [2014] FWC 518. If you don’t want your investigation failing because you’ve stumbled into the sticky trap of “investigator bias”, take note of these lessons from Qantas in a ruling by the Fair Work Commission early this month. The FWC found in favour of the […]
Are you or your employees in the dark about their work arrangements? Maybe it’s time to shed light on this. Formalising flexible working arrangements could help protect both employees and managers when it comes to drawing a line in the sand between bullying and harassment and reasonable management action. A recent case brought against the […]
Jill McMahon – Tuesday, October 29, 2013 Last week, I looked at how the 1938 divorce case of Briginshaw vs. Briginshaw has significant impact on workplace investigations today. This week, I look at the importance of the balance of probabilities and applying Briginshaw in practice. The balance of probabilities Usually the role of an […]
What relevance does the 1938 divorce case Briginshaw versus Briginshaw have, seven decades after the fact, to workplace investigations in the 21st century? Find out in a two part series on WISE Workplace’s blogs. Briginshaw v Briginshaw comes up a lot where workplace investigations concern matters which could involve criminal or other moral wrong doing; […]
By ALISON PAGE, Legal Counsel Often it’s not a one-off event; investigations into alleged sexual harassment frequently reveal that on previous occasions the respondent has faced other accusations of inappropriate conduct against fellow employees. This evidence is traditionally known as “similar fact evidence” or “tendency evidence”. When the investigator considers each alleged incident in […]
A recent case determined by the Fair Work Commission provides some important lessons for employers about bullying dismissals. In Harris v Workpac Pty Ltd [2013] FWC 4111 the Commission found in favour of the applicant and determined that her dismissal for gross misconduct for bullying a co-worker was unfair. Mrs Harris was dismissed on 20 […]
By ALISON PAGE, Legal Counsel – Earlier this year, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal determined a sexual harassment case in which the Tribunal member described the employer’s initial investigation as ‘bungled’.* The Tribunal accepted that the HR department was hard pressed, understaffed and overworked. However, the cautionary tale from this case is that this […]
A basic understanding of criminal law – especially the powers and responsibilities of the police – can make for better decision-making and better outcomes for employers in criminal cases of workplace misconduct. WISE Workplace has handled a few cases recently where the employer or HR manager either hasn’t understood the role of the police in […]
By Jo Kamira The Fair Work Commission ordered compensation to an employee dismissed for theft and other misconduct last month in a case that highlights the need for even the smallest of companies to conduct proper investigations before summarily dismissing employees. In our experience, many small business owners believe they aren’t subject to unfair […]