INTERNATIONAL NEWS: AUSTRALIA: Are Your Workplace Bullying Investigations Impartial?
The Fair Work Commission will look at a number of factors when considering workplace bullying investigations as part of an anti-bullying order, including the terms of reference of
the investigation and how they were determined, according to a leading employment lawyer. According to the FWC's anti-bullying benchbook, the FWC must consider "any outcomes arising from an investigation into the matter by another person or body (whether that investigation is complete or not)" when considering workers' applications for stop-bullying orders.
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Bullying Not So Fashionable A recent win for a bullied employee of the Sussan retail chain in the Supreme Court of Queensland shows that it has never been more important for employers to ensure frontline managers are adequately trained to respond appropriately to workplace bullying complaints. Together with the introduction of the anti-bullying jurisdiction of the FWC, existing statutory and contractual obligations about health and safety provide solid platforms for employees to obtain redress for bullying. If your workplace policy states that any complaints will be taken seriously and investigated, then this needs to occur, no matter how trivial a complaint may appear at first instance.
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Informal Bullying Management "A Balancing Act" Employment lawyer Jordan Tilse says, ―Strong informal processes can prevent many bullying complaints from escalating into full-blown claims and legal action, but only if employers avoid common mistakes with them. Best-practice bullying management is to have both an informal and a formal complaints resolution process.‖
"The role and challenge of HR practitioners is to get the balance right between responding to genuine incidents of bullying and ensuring that the workplace doesn't become a breeding ground for airing baseless grievances." At the early, informal stage of a bullying complaint, it is important for HR to act as a gatekeeper, says Tilse. Given that the word "bullying" is bandied around a lot, HR should, where appropriate, "de-label" conduct that is the subject of complaints, she says. "For example you should, at the informal stage, be saying to people, 'tell me what your complaint is' before obtaining the buy-in of the complainant about whether the complaint is appropriately framed as a bullying complaint.
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BELGIUM: Gunman Enters Jewish Museum in Rampage, Kills Four; Attack Presumed Anti-Semitic
Three people were killed on-site and another fatally wounded when a gunman attacked the Jewish Museum in the center of Brussels. Interior Minister Joelle Milquet said it was too early to say if the attack was anti-Semitic as a police and judicial inquiry was under way but that given the target "there are strong grounds for presuming so." A Jewish community figure, Joel Rubinfeld, said it clearly "is a terrorist act". The attack comes on the eve of elections in Belgium for a new federal government as well as for its regional parliaments and the European Parliament.
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CANADA: Is Bullying and Harassment a Problem in Your Organization?
Workplace bullying and harassment are making news across the country, and legislators and courts are trying to Continued on page 10
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