Former public hospital boss Jane Holden has launched an appeal against the Supreme Court’s dismissal of her $2 million unfair sacking claim. Ms Holden was dismissed as the acting chief executive of Tasmanian Health Organisation South in 2014, soon after the release of a Tasmanian Integrity Commission report into the health system. Ms Holden sued the State Government, seeking payment equal to the balance of her five-year contract, plus for another five-year term, equal to nearly $2 million. Earlier this month, Justice Shan Tennent ruled in the Government’s favour, dismissing Ms Holden’s claim in its entirety and ordering she pay the Government’s costs of defending the civil action. Ms Holden’s legal team claimed she was sacked as a result of findings made by the Integrity Commission. Ms Holden rejected those findings when she gave evidence during her week-long civil case last year. She was made redundant with a $211,000 severance payment by Health Minister  ...

In an industry that favours youth over experience, the best defence against age discrimination may be avoiding becoming a victim in the first place How old is too old to work in IT? That depends on who is doing the hiring and paying the salaries of IT pros. But one thing is for certain: Widespread age discrimination has become a central issue, affecting many people working or seeking work in today’s IT industry, according to legal and career experts. “Large percentages of IT professionals see age discrimination as a serious problem, and leaders in the tech industry boast of their preference for young workers,” says Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, senior attorney adviser at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of a person's race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetic information, or age. Although laws again...

A Chevron Australia employee who was terminated for using a racist slur has been found to have been unfairly dismissed, the  Fair Work Commission  has ruled. The FWC found dismissal was too severe for the offence and the workers' actions were "careless rather than involving reckless indifference". However, the FWC did not award compensation for lost remuneration, finding the employee had caused offence to employees and had a responsibility to Chevron to comply with its policies. HRD  contacted Chevron for comment and a spokesperson said the company respects the FWC’s decision as an independent arbiter. “Chevron Australia is fully committed to providing a diverse and inclusive work environment which is free from unlawful discrimination and where individual differences are respected,” said the statement. “This commitment is reflected in policies, training and associated programs.” The employee was on a bus to Chevron’s Gorgon project on Western Australia’s Barrow Island whe...

An employee has lost her legal bid to complete a $35,000 a year degree at La Trobe University after suffering a workplace injury.  The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was told the 52-year-old IP Australia worker had wrist and elbow problems for more than two-and-half years caused by her repetitive computer work in the intellectual property agency's patent section. Moreover, she suffered aggravation of pre-existing bipolar disorder before she left the job in July 2015 and has not returned to work since. However, the federal workplace insurer Comcare was concerned the university plan would hit taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars a year of workers' compensation benefits, in addition to the $98,000 tuition fees, HECS payments, text books and materials. Instead, a three-member tribunal panel decided that the employee will be able to access a $10,000 medical rehabilitation course aimed at getting her back to work. IP Australia and Comcare have tried a...

A young male hairdressing trainee has been awarded $30,000 after a tribunal accepted he had been sexually harassed and victimised by senior males at a salon, including being told “hairdressers are like racehorses, they need a pat on the bum to go faster”. Arthur Kordas spent less than three months as a trainee at Aztec Hair and Beauty at Tuggerah but experienced sexual harassment and victimisation that had “a significant impact” on him, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found. Mr Kordas was awarded $15,000 for sexual harassment by a senior salon employee and the salon manager between November 2014 and February, 2015, and $15,000 for victimisation after he complained about the harassment. Mr Kordas was sacked after he broke down at work on February 11, 2015. It followed two incidents in which senior employee Dean Eaton grabbed him around the waist from behind, once in front of customers, with both occasions witnessed by salon manager Sayeed R...

The Commonwealth Government has passed the  Crimes Amendment (Penalty Unit) Bill 2017 . Taking effect from 1 July 2017, the Bill will see the value of a penalty unit increase and, by extension, the maximum civil penalties against corporate entities and individuals for breaches of the  Fair Work Act 2009  (FW Act). The penalty unit and maximum civil penalties will increase as follows: Before 1 July 2017 After 1 July 2017 Penalty Unit $180 $210 Maximum Penalty for a Corporate Entity $54,000 $63,000 Maximum Penalty for an Individual $10,800 $12,600 The above maximum penalties apply to single breaches of civil penalty provisions under the FW Act—multiple breaches can result in multiple civil penalties being imposed. Civil penalty provisions within the Fair Work Act include: compliance with the National Employment Standards, modern awards and enterprise agreements protection of workplace rights and other general protections issues associated with right of en...

I nvolving a lawyer with experience in enterprise agreements and keeping good notes can ensure your enterprise agreement gets it right. In the 1983 hit "Words", singer F.R. David famously sang "Words don't come easy to me". While that lament was in the context of expressing love, the same problem can sometimes afflict those who draft enterprise agreements. Or perhaps the problem is not in finding the right words, but in putting them together. It's been noted by courts that those drafting enterprise agreements are sometimes more concerned with "expressing an intention in ways likely to have been understood in the context of the relevant industry and industrial relations environment than with legal niceties or jargon" (Kucks v CSR Ltd) While that approach might make sense in the heat of negotiations, and in light of the need for enterprise agreements to be practical, living documents easily understood by management and employees alike, it...

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has criticised Komatsu Forklift Australia Pty Ltd's HR department for fundamental failures of due process in its dismissal, via email, of a worker who had been absent due to mental health issues. The employee, Mr John Finnegan, worked for the Komatsu Forklift Australia Pty Ltd (Komatsu) for eight years. Komatsu is part of the business of Komatsu Australia Pty Ltd (KAL). In August 2015, Mr Finnegan was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP) after failing to meet his sales budget key performance indicator (KPI) requirements. He claimed that problems with his personal relationships, particularly involving his new manager, contributed to his performance difficulties. In March 2016, when it became clear to Komatsu that Mr Finnegan was experiencing some mental health problems, the PIP was abandoned and he was immediately placed on sick leave due to 'ongoing concerns regarding behaviour and work performance'. Komatsu required Mr Finn...

Workplace investigation report inadmissible in anti-bullying case The Fair Work Commission has rejected an employee's request to view a workplace investigation report that he alleged includes details of bullying at a colleague's previous job, finding it inadmissible in his current anti-bullying case. The Deakin University lecturer sought orders in March 2017 from the Commission to stop workplace bullying by a number of colleagues. He also applied for the 2015 report to be produced, claiming it contained evidence of one of his colleagues having been "at least perceived by a number of staff" to have engaged in bullying behaviour while working at the University of Newcastle (UON). He said the colleague's conduct as a manager at UON was "materially relevant to the substantive issues in dispute". Deakin University, the colleague, and UON objected to producing the report on a number of grounds, and after considering their refusal, Commissioner Bissett...

Workplace bullying affects not just employees themselves, but the productivity of the whole organisation. Yet it can be difficult to stamp out. It’s a wide-reaching phenomenon — in the Victorian public service, for example, around 20% of employees report having been bullied in the workplace, a rate that has remained largely unchanged in the past decade. One in four say they’ve witnessed bullying. But some organisations do manage to make a significant difference, whether through direct intervention with problem individuals, training staff to recognise bad behaviour, or by creating a more open and trusting workplace culture. A new report from the Victorian Public Sector Commission,  Turning the tide on bullying and poor workplace cultures ,  aims to make it easier to tackle the problem by providing five case studies of public sector bodies that have managed to successfully turn around acrimonious work environments. “With bullying, it’s not hard to focus exclusively on t...

Workplace Investigation Questions and the question of what and how to ask questions during an interview. The interview is typically a means to gather evidence, to clarify points made in a complaint, to find out what people saw, heard or experienced and also an opportunity for the person who is the subject of the complaint to provide their side of the story. There are two key elements to the actual interview that are of paramount importance - asking questions and listening to the answers. It is important that investigators ask question that are legally complainant and get the best answers from the interviewee.  Here are some suggestions Types of questions Open questions – that encourage free recall “Sarah had alleged that you swore at her during the meeting on the 10 th , would you care to comment about that?” “Can you tell me about the meeting on the 10 th ?” “I would like to ask you about the meeting on the 10 th , can you tell me what happened?”   ...