The July HR Breakfast Club featured a compelling roundtable discussion between HR professionals and Legal Director John Wilson. Due to the confidential nature of our discussion under ‘Chatham House Rules’, we can’t reveal any precise details shared by participants. However, we have shared below a general outline of topics discussed.
John presented three distinct, pop-culture inspired scenarios which reflected the essence of a variety of workplace issues commonly encountered in the workplace. In general terms, these workplace issues included:
John’s discussion topics
- How to balance conflicting employee accounts of the same workplace incident, including
- how to manage the investigation process;
- how to gather evidence; and
- how to weigh up the evidence gathered and make a fair determination.
- Psychosocial hazards of inspiring a culture of fear at a management level, including:
- fear of victimisation, which is also a criminal offence under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984;
- isolation, anxiety and depression, which are gaining more attention with the renewed focus on psychosocial hazards in the work, health and safety sphere; and
- lack of transparency and/or procedural fairness in investigations into breaches of workplace policies.
- The vicarious liability of employers for workplace sexual harassment, including:
- the substantial damages awarded for vicarious liability against employers in recent cases;
- the interaction between the work health and safety duties and the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984; and
- the powers of the Australian Human Rights Commission to inspect a workplace for compliance with the positive duty.
Participant discussion topics
There was also a general discussion amongst the participants addressing their current workplace issues.
Our recent experience tells us that employers and employees are concerned about the following issues:
- Updating workplace policies to reflect various changes to employment and labour law,
- How to make sure there is a genuine redundancy,
- How to investigate sensitive allegations of misconduct in a manner that balances the duty of care to both, victim and perpetrator,
- The new definition of ‘casual employment’ and how to reflect it in casual employment contracts,
- The importance and usefulness, if any, of an enterprise agreement, and
- How to satisfy the positive duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
We will be exploring some of these topics in future HR Breakfast Clubs but, as always, we welcome your questions and topics to create a valuable experience for all.
Closing Remarks
If you are a HR professional in the ACT and would like to attend future HR Breakfast Club forums, visit our monthly forum page and register to attend. If you have any questions or queries about the information in this summary, please contact the BAL Lawyers Employment Law & Investigations team on 02 6274 0999.
