On March 15, 2019, The Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Merrifield v. Canada (Attorney General), reversing a trial decision in which the Ontario Superior Court of Justice had recognized the existence of a common law “tort of harassment”. The plaintiff’s claim was based on conduct that he had experienced during his employment … Continue reading
The Queensland Supreme Court last month awarded $1,703,530 in damages against an employer, whose Chief Executive Officer’s “unjustified blaming, humiliation, belittling, isolation, undermining and contemptuous disregard” of the plaintiff employee resulted in serious psychiatric injury. The employer was found vicariously liable for the CEO’s actions and to have breached its own duty of care.… Continue reading
Board members can occupy positions of high responsibility and power. A recent decision of the Fair Work Commission has shed light however on whether they may also fall under the category of ‘worker’ for the purposes of anti-bullying laws.… Continue reading
A Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) considered the meaning of “at work” in the context of an application for a stop bullying order. The FWC found that “at work” encompasses: the performance of work at any time or location; and when the worker is engaged in some other activity which is authorised … Continue reading
The tsunami of stop bullying applications expected to be lodged with by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) after 1 January 2014, was instead a trickle of only 343 application in the first six months of the jurisdiction, according to the FWC’s Annual Report for 2013-2014. In the six month period ending 30 June 2014, the … Continue reading
The new anti-bullying jurisdiction under the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act), which commenced on 1 January 2014, introduces an ‘individual right of recourse’ to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), that is designed to be both ‘speedy’ and ‘inexpensive’. The emphasis on providing a ‘speedy’ individual right was reflected in the Second Reading Speech, with … Continue reading