Topic
16 articles from our Tips & Trends archive.
Unions NSW’s Ready, Willing, Unable report (the Report) is a significant warning to all workplaces and a timely reminder to employers that compliance with the Respect@Work obligations requires proactive and preventative management.
Read more
FWC recently in Young [2025] FWC 2834 dismissed a bullying claim brought by a public sector employee, finding that the Department acted reasonably in placing him on a three-day work week while he recovered from a previous toxic workplace experience.
Read more
In Fernandez v Australian Postal Corporation [2025] FCA 1144 the Federal Court quashed an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision that had rejected a postal worker’s psychological injury claim on the basis of "maladaptive personality characteristics".
Read more
FWC recently in Mrs Seema Kurup [2025] FWC 921 found that a manager did not bully an employee by providing her a lower annual rating than usual.
Read more
FWC (Applicant (AB2025/40) [2025] FWC 2459 (22 August 2025)) recently dismissed a worker’s "absurd" and "baseless" claims of bullying and micromanagement against a senior WHS professional and ten other employees, demonstrating that employers shouldn’t and don’t have to put up with toxic claims.
Read more
Incivility in the workplace, such as eye-rolling and sarcastic remarks, might seem a ‘one off’ or ‘not worth making a fuss about’ but such behaviours can escalate into genuine psychosocial hazards if left unmanaged.
Read more
Bullying is one of the most overused and misunderstood terms in employment law. Employers and their managers regularly voice concerns that the term has become weaponised. But has it? To what extent does genuine but firm management still have its place in a contemporary workplace?
Read more
The FWC (Application by Wong [2024] FWC 2856 (15 October 2024) has dismissed an employee’s bullying claim against their employer, ruling that while the employer’s conduct may have been unreasonable, it did not constitute bullying.
Read more
FWC (click here) recently refused to grant stop-bullying orders against a manager who allegedly bullied a worker for about 7 months over MS Teams/Skype by questioning in writing the: • number of calls they responded to • breaks taken • reasons for working from home
Read more
The Federal Court recently (Dorsch v HEAD Oceania Pty Ltd [2024] FCA 162) held that a critical and insensitive manager who routinely swore at his direct reports in a mis-guided attempt to motivate them warranted summary dismissal.
Read more
A recent WA government study into the mining sector found burnout, bullying and sexual harassment have remained high despite recent initiatives and legislative change.
Read more
A recent FWC case (Application by Josh Whiteford [2024] FWC 552) has once again endorsed the position that managers carrying out legitimate and genuine performance management techniques including issuing a warning to poor performers is not bullying.
Read more
The FWC (Momirovski, Douglas, Serafini, Naumcevski and Egan [2023] FWC 3299) has recently refused to make stop bullying orders against an ‘exasperated manager’ who allegedly yelled at workers when managing them to perform their duties.
Read more
Bullying has tended to have taken a bit of a ‘back seat’ following all the recent publicity around the Respect@Work changes. Nonetheless, it is a recognised psychosocial hazard and needs ongoing attention. Safety regulators have demonstrated that they will intervene from worker level (e.g. other employees, supervisors etc) right up to officer level (e.g. senior managers, company directors etc).
Read more
Christmas is a great time of year but unfortunately, work functions can be fertile ground for incidents that lead to not only WHS claims but also: sexual harassment, sex based harassment, hostile work environment, sex discrimination, victimisation (collectively the Respect@Work obligations), plus bullying, adverse action, unfair dismissal, and privacy claims as well. With the introduction of the new positive duty for the Respect@Work obligations, employers now have multiple proactive and preventative obligations to ensure that Christmas functions are safe for their employees and others who attend (eg clients, customers, food and beverage staff etc).
Read more
The High Court recently handed down its decision in Kozarov v Victoria [2022] HCA 12, in which it made clear that employers have a duty to safeguard their employees from work-related mental harm - even in circumstances where there is a vicarious trauma policy in place.
Read more
Tips & Trends
You will get short, relevant articles on topical areas with actionable steps and real commentary.
