Yesterday, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission handed down a decision of significance with regards to the way that it assesses applications for an order to stop bullying under s.789FC of the Fair Work Act 2009.
An employee lodged an application for an order to prevent her from being bullied at work. The applicant was allegedly subjected to bullying behaviour from November 2007 through to May 2013, though no bullying behaviour has occurred since May 2013.
This decision deals with the jurisdictional objection from the respondent, being that the Commission has no jurisdiction to hear and determine an application involving alleged bullying conduct which occurred prior to 1 January 2014, the date that Part 6-4B commenced
Points of interest:
- Paragraph 7: Reference to ‘is at work’ in s789FD(1) simply provides the context in which the bullying behaviour has taken place. The alleged bullying behaviour must take place prior to the making of an application for an order under s. 789FF.
This was in response to the submission from the respondent that a worker can only be bullied at work from 1 January 2014, when the legal characterisation of ‘bullying’ came into force.