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Latest Workplace Acumen
Beware the trap of the disgruntled employee – Part 2
Taking over an established business can be fraught with anxiety for employers.
The anxiety is not one-way and it can take time for a workplace under new ownership to return to its previous harmonious state.
In the final article of our two-part series we feature a dismissal case about the wrong way to manage a disgruntled employee who takes to Facebook.
Make this mistake and the FWC will be reaching for the ‘unfriend’ button.
Beware the trap of the disgruntled employee – Part 1
Disgruntled employees with unresolved workplace issues can be difficult to manage.
Get it wrong and you can be in all sorts of legal trouble.
In part 1 of “Beware the trap of the disgruntled employee”, we feature a case which shows how not to handle a workplace dispute.
Find out how it went wrong for this employer, so it doesn’t happen to you.
Huge payout after ‘sex, lies and workplace bullying’
An employer has found out the hard way, the risks associated with failing to protect a worker from systematic workplace bullying and sexual harassment.
Rather than taking a worker’s complaint seriously, the employer failed to address issues which a Court later considered could have been avoided by “relatively simply means”.
‘Go ahead and sack me’ threat backfires before FWC
When two employees engage in workplace warfare, the employer’s business can become major collateral damage.
A recent unfair dismissal case showcases a clever framework adopted by an employer in an attempt to end a workplace dispute.
As the dispute worsened, one of the workplace disputants even goaded her employer to sack her.
Was the employer being lured into a carefully laid trap?
Did the employer fall for it?
Read on to find out…
FWC Workplace Bullying Order – A Nightmare on Employer Street?
A recent Stop Bullying Order by the FWC serves as warning to employers of the broader burden that an order could impose on their workplace and potentially, their management prerogative.
The FWC’s Order not only restricted the workplace interaction between the parties, it went so far as to restrict work attendance times and face-to-face communication.
Read on for our analysis of the FWC’s Order and our tips for preventing it happening to you.
FWC case – Can a boss tell a worker to F*** off?
In a recent article, we profiled an unfair dismissal case where the Fair Work Commission had to consider whether a worker swearing at the boss was okay.
In the tradition of ‘truth at times being stranger than fiction’, we now profile a dismissal case involving a boss telling a worker to “F*** off”.
Is it okay for the boss to lose their cool and swear at a subordinate?
What if the boss shows regret later on?
Does it matter if the worker had exhibited a “belligerent, uncooperative attitude” for some months?
Did the boss’s actions amount to an instant sacking?
The FWC had to wrestle with these issues and more …