Indenizado professor australiano
Teacher awarded $770,000 in damages
A Victorian teacher who had a major psychological breakdown after dealing with "feral" students at a Melbourne school has been awarded almost $770,000 in damages. The teacher took legal action against the Victorian Government claiming he suffered a major breakdown after being allocated some of Werribee College's most challenging students. The Victorian Supreme Court found the school, and therefore the state, had breached its duty to the teacher by not removing him from the challenging classes known as low and foundation classes. The judge ruled that this was a cause of the man's chronic severe major depressive condition. Following this decision, The Age has reported that at least 20 teachers and other professionals have sought legal advice on potential claims against their employers for stress. According to an employment lawyer, the decision means workers may claim compensation if their employers could have foreseen they would be injured by their workload, the stress caused by their work or some other attribute of their work which goes above and beyond the normal.
Meredith Peace, the Victorian president of the Australian Education Union, said it could happen again. "If our governments aren't prepared to support our schools in the important work that they do in educating our young people, then we do risk having situations like this re-occur," she said.
Read more: ABC News Online The Age: Ex-teacher's $1 million compensation award prompts rise in legal inquiries over stress
Campanha mundial de sindicatos contra aprecarizaçao do trabalho
Global: Union body steps up precarious work campaign
IndustriALL has called on its affiliates worldwide to mobilise their members to 'STOP Precarious Work.' The global union body says regular, permanent and direct employment remains under constant attack from multinationals and other forces that are promoting precarious work, linked to higher rates of occupational injury and ill-health. Calling on its affiliated unions worldwide to highlight the campaign on the 7 October World Day for Decent Work, IndustriALL said: "We strongly encourage affiliates to take action and denounce precarious employment and the insecurity, which is becoming everyday life for more and more workers around the world."
It says some plans are already in place. In Canada, UNIFOR is to run a national Good Job Summit from 3-5 October as part of its 'Join the Revolution for Good Jobs' campaign. The summit will form part of a national dialogue between workers, students, government, employers and communities, aimed at finding new approaches to jobs and the economy. The Rio Tinto Global Union Network will hold a global day of action against precarious work as part of its employment rights campaign at the mining giant. And IndustriALL affiliates in Cambodia will target Export Process Zones (EPZs) where workers' rights are largely undermined. Workers in a bus and on motorcycles, holding IndustriALL flags, will do rounds in the EPZs as part of a "caravan for decent work."
Read more: IndustriALL News release and Report, Negotiating security: Trade union bargaining strategies against precarious work. IndustriALL STOP Precarious Work campaign. Hazards information on health and safety and insecure work. October 7: World Day for Decent Work. Source: Risks 670
Alemanha discute proposta de legislação que reprime empresas que contactam trabalhadoresque estao fora de serviço
Germany: Ban on out-of-office contact investigated
German employment minister Andrea Nahles is considering new "anti-stress" legislation that would ban companies from contacting employees out of hours. Concerns over rising levels of workplace stress prompted the minister to commission a report investigating the viability of legislation that would restrict the use of emails to contact staff outside of work. She told journalists: "There is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness. We have commissioned the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to work out whether it is possible to set load thresholds. We need universal and legally binding criteria."
It is already illegal in Germany for employers to contact staff during holidays. Several major companies such as Volkswagen and BMW have also implemented their own restrictions on contacting employees out of hours. Last year the German Labour Ministry banned managers from contacting staff outside of work. Recently, car manufacturer Daimler installed software on its systems which automatically deletes emails sent to staff out of hours. A study released recently by the union DGB showed that increasing numbers of German workers are retiring early through stress. The findings of the workplace stress report will be delivered next year. Earlier this year, unions and employers in France's technology and consultancy sectors agreed a legally binding agreement that workers would no longer have to answer work emails or phone calls outside work hours.
Source: Risks 670
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