S-xual harassment remains prevalent across the mining and resources industry and is perpetuated by poor workplace cultures, power imbalances and gender inequality, an inquiry has found.
Employers are facing increasing pressure to disclose workplace sexual harassment allegations and the outcomes of their investigations, but this requires a careful balancing act.
Ahead of Labor legislating a positive duty to prevent workplace s-xual harassment, there is still a false but "prevailing sense" among employers that having policies and training in place will be enough to discharge it, a lawyer says.
After sacking an employee for a code of conduct breach involving a consensual s-xual interaction, an employer has successfully appealed against orders to reinstate and compensate him.
Employers have two critical lessons to take away from the operation of the Fair Work Commission's stop-s-xual harassment jurisdiction so far, an employment lawyer says.
Despite making no findings, the Fair Work Commission has said an employer should investigate the incident at the centre of an employee's application for stop-sexual-harassment orders.
Bystander interventions can play a critical role in preventing workplace s-xual harassment, but employers first need to shift their culture, an Australian researcher says.
A BHP employee has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission that a contract worker, upon hearing about a colleague's s-xual harassment claim, immediately fabricated another against him.
An employee has failed to prove he was unfairly sacked for his out-of-hours assault of a subordinate, with whom he was having an affair, after arguing it didn't impact his work performance.
A manager has failed to prove that numerous instances of physical contact with his subordinate occurred in the context of a "supportive and caring" employment relationship.
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