Employers Beware: Novel Challenge in Harassment Investigations

By Neale Towart

Southern Cross University was hit with a s127 action under the Workplace Relations Act over its suspension of an academic, his removal as head of a school, and his physical relocation to another building after an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment

The AIRC knocked back all the claims put by the National Tertiary Education Union, but noted that in other circumstances the action could succeed. The use of s127 shows how unions are being increasingly innovative in dealing with the limits the Workplace relations Act places on them, and thus seeking to extend the definition of 'industrial action.' The AIRC said that the suspension could be interpreted as industrial action.

(Thomson CPD Discrimination Alert. issue 186, July 2, 2003)