Case Studies
Sexual Harassment
Phil, a Supervisor, made several unsolicited, sexually suggestive advances towards Julie in the workplace. Despite Julie repeatedly asking Phil to stop, the advances continued. Julie reported the matter to her Manager, John. In recent months, John had heard of similar complaints from other female staff about Phil, but this was the first formal complaint. Unsure of what action to take John sent Phil a copy of the organisation’s Sexual Harassment Policy and asked him in an email to read the policy document and not to act in a manner that could contravene the policy, but took no other action. The behaviour continued and Julie and the other female staff made a formal complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Did the organisation meet its duty of care to its female employees? What risks does the organisation face? Can the organisation retrieve the situation?
Workplace Bullying
Joan, the newly appointed Office Manager took a personal dislike to one of her Team Leaders, Martin. Martin enjoyed his work and was a well-liked employee with an excellent track record managing his team and its targets. Joan wanted Martin to leave his job, she threatened to demote him from his current position and placed him under enormous pressure by giving him and his team unrealistic and unachievable deadlines. His productivity began to suffer and when he failed to meet his team’s minimum productivity levels, she openly made derogatory comments about him, and criticised him to his team members and others in the organisation.
Attempts by Martin to discuss his concerns with Joan were continuously ignored, as were his attempts to bring the matter to the attention of Senior Management. After several months of constant bullying and unfair work allocation, Joan terminates Martin's employment contract due to his alleged poor work performance.
What has happened here? Does Martin have any possible recourse in this situation? What potential consequences can this type of conduct have upon other staff and the organisation?
Serious Misconduct
Jim is a Director within your organisation, and as part of his role is required regularly to travel interstate on business. Jim is provided with a corporate credit card to enable him to deal with business expenses efficiently. All accounts are promptly paid and tax receipts are forwarded to your organisation. In some instances Jim reimburses the organisation in cash for some private non-business expenses when the receipts arrive at the office. During a routine audit the auditor queries some of the tax receipts, which Jim had reimbursed. These tax receipts are from businesses such as “Comfort Services”. After an initial inquiry with the service providers, it is discovered that the services rendered related to prostitutes and strippers.
Even though Jim reimbursed the money spent on strippers and prostitutes paid for with the organisations corporate credit card - are there any issues of concern here? How might this reflect on the organisation were it to become public knowledge? How should the organisation deal with Jim?
Fraud
Bruce is a Security Supervisor for a large import and distribution company. The company has been having issues with break-ins and graffiti damage to some its warehouses. To increase security presence, Bruce’s Manager Denise, asks him to conduct drive-by patrols of the companies warehouses after hours. Bruce accepts, and Denise agrees to pay him an overtime allowance for the extra patrols, and provides use the of a company vehicle. Bruce decides that the extra patrols are in fact not necessary, and uses the company vehicle to run personal errands instead. He enters false entries in the vehicle logbook to indicate he has completed the patrols and submits his overtime timesheets to payroll whereby he is paid accordingly. This continues for months, until one of the warehouses is broken into at the time Bruce should have been patrolling the area. Bruce denies he has done anything wrong and states he has been conducting the requisite patrols.
What should the Denise do? How can she prove Bruce has committed fraud? How can the company rectify the situation and prevent this from happening again?
Disclaimer: All case studies depicted are compilations from actual events. All names of persons or references to organisations have been changed for reasons of privacy and confidentially. Case studies are for illustrative purposes only. Any similarity to actual persons or organisations is purely coincidental
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Phone: Tony Langmair
0419 144 122
Jane Wyllie
0404 870 311
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