Fair Work Ombudsman v University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne was sued by the Fair Work Ombudsman for breaches of the Fair Work Act 2009. The dispute centred on the university’s failure to prevent bullying and retaliation against two employees. The Federal Court was tasked with determining the nature of the contraventions, the appropriate penalties, and the necessity of declarations. The court was required to decide whether the university had contravened specific provisions of the Fair Work Act by allowing adverse action against employees who exercised their workplace rights. This included assessing whether threats made by a supervisor and subsequent refusal to re-employ amounted to contraventions of the Act, and whether these actions prejudiced the employees’ expectations or prospects of continuing work. The court also needed to determine the appropriate penalties for these contraventions, taking into account the statutory framework, the agreed penalties, and the relevant principles.

The court found that the university had contravened the Fair Work Act by allowing a supervisor to threaten two employees and subsequently refusing to re-employ one of them, actions that prejudiced their workplace rights. The university admitted these contraventions, which aligned with the court’s findings based on the Statement of Accepted Facts. The court accepted the agreed penalties submitted by the parties, considering the principles of predictability and appropriateness in civil penalty proceedings. The court was satisfied that the proposed penalties were within a permissible range and appropriate given the circumstances. The university was ordered to pay a total of $74,590 in pecuniary penalties for the contraventions, to be paid within 28 days.

The university was found to have contravened the Fair Work Act by allowing a supervisor to threaten employees who exercised their workplace rights and by refusing to re-employ one of them. The court accepted the agreed penalties of $37,295 for each contravention, totaling $74,590, to be paid within 28 days. The decision underscores the importance of preventing workplace bullying and retaliation, and the court’s commitment to imposing appropriate penalties to ensure compliance with workplace laws.