Social club ordered to pay worker $27,000 after firing him over claims he made sexual comments and revealed the company’s finances to patrons A social club venue in Melbourne has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in compensation to a worker it dismissed over allegations he had told patrons the business had no money and had alleged open discussions of a sexual nature about activities with women in Thailand. The worker, who had been employed at South Oakleigh Club in Melbourne from July 2012 until January 2017, lodged an unfair dismissal claim with the Fair Work Commission when he was fired after the general manager of the establishment put five allegations to him. These included that he had told patrons of the venue that the business “had no money”; that he had revealed confidential details of another staff member’s employment to one of the club’s members; that he had spoken disrespectfully to management; and that he had engaged during work time in ...

The presence of bias be it actual or perceived during an investigation can derail the investigation and undermine any findings and recommendations. Complaint of bias are often raised relating to two areas, the investigation process itself or the investigation interviews. This article will examine the process, part two will examine bias during interviews. Workplace investigations are defined as  "an unbiased gathering of evidence"  and to ensure that that a complaint of bias is not raised or substantiated it is important to follow these rules; Approach the investigation with an open mind. Do no make any judgements on the parties Do not make any judgements on the truthfulness of any of the parties versions of events until all the evidence has been gathered. Gather all the evidence, not just the evidence that supports the complaint Do not form a theory and then seek evidence to support your theory only Do not make early determinations If you feel that you ...

The Fair Work Commission has decided despite having “considerable sympathy” for a staff member who says he was told it was okay to take items from an IGA store without paying, his employer was within its right to sack him. In an  unfair dismissal case decision  handed down yesterday, Fair Work Commission deputy president Reg Hamilton ruled it was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable for a director of the Castlemaine IGA supermarket to dismiss a staff member who was found to have left the store with three items he had not paid for. The Commission heard that on February 7, the director stopped and searched the staff member and found the three items that were being removed from the store. Police were called but no charges were laid, and the staff member was summarily dismissed that day. The employer had clear policies in place around the removal of stock, and could indicate several aspects of its code of conduct policies that prohibited this. However, when launchi...

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...

If you lose your job past the age of 50, you are in the hardest age bracket to find work again thanks to age discrimination. A recent study by the University of South Australia's Centre for Workplace Excellence confirmed there was a strong perception that older workers were not suitable for employment. "Older job seekers that we spoke to felt they were rejected based on their age alone," the centre's Justine Irving told  ABC Radio Adelaide 's Drive program. One-third of people surveyed aged over 50 revealed they had experienced age discrimination when applying for work. "Some adults described a subtle pressure from their colleagues and management to stop working in order to make room for a younger generation." Age-related discrimination was causing many to withhold their age on résumé, Dr Irving said. The centre's study follows the  Willing To Work Inquiry  by the Human Rights Commission released in May 2016. It revealed a rise in long...

The law, it might be said, too often forgets HR professionals are still human. While the employment law regulatory framework expects calm and rational decision making, HR managers are just as prone to emotive judgment as the rest of us. Recent case law provides an apt reminder that a higher standard is expected when employers elect to terminate employees. Although neither occurred in the APS context, they remain instructive for federal public servants. In  Bellenger v Mid North Coast Local Health District ,  the applicant was found to have had approximately 1,256 emails of a “pornographic, graphic (violence) and generally inappropriate” nature in her work inbox. Among the emails discovered by a forensic audit were 31 emails containing pictures of genitals, four containing images depicting naked children and 11 with cartoons portraying sex. Between 2006 and 2014, the applicant had sent, received and stored these emails in a “funny emails” folder. After the investigation, her...

A former vice-president of the Fair Work Commission says legislative reform is the only answer for protecting employers against unfair dismissal decisions that defy “logic”. In an   opinion article   published by Fairfax this morning, Graeme Watson, who called out the ”dysfunctional” nature of the commission’s processes when he quit his role in January, says the Commission “has departed from the notion of determining whether an employer’s actions were reasonable” in deciding unfair dismissal cases. Comparing Australia’s industrial relations system to international examples, Watson says the UK’s approach of considering whether an employer acted “within a band of reasonable responses” is a more sensible alternative to the Fair Work Commission’s approach, which determines both the fairness of process and whether the impact on an employee is harsh or not. “The result is a series of Catch-22 situations” where despite doing the right thing, employers can be asked ...

Violence Valid Ground for Dismissal The Fair Work Commission (in the case of  Sekirski v Scope (Vic) Ltd [2017] FWC 1200 ) has found that an employee who assaulted a co-worker by striking her in the face was validly dismissed.  Stif Sekirski commenced employment as a Disability Support Worker with Scope (Vic) Ltd in November 2014.  Mr Sekirski’s employment was terminated on 2 September 2016 on grounds of serious misconduct. It was alleged that Mr Sekirski punched a co-worker in the face, then called her a bit** and threw a chair in her direction.  The FWC was satisfied that this conduct had occurred, and held that this conduct provided Scope with a valid reason to terminate Mr Sekirski’s employment. It is important that when confronted with matters involving violence in the workplace employers ensure that they conduct a timely and thorough investigation.   We recommend that even if summary dismissal is a likely outcome you should s...