This seminar concerns legal protection for psychosocial harm in the workplace; an area where both the common law and statute have failed to react adequately to contemporary advances in understanding of the nature and effect of this type of harm. Such a stance is increasingly out of line with societal expectations. The seminar focusses on the common law and contrasts the position in the UK and Australia. It considers recent developments such as the decisions of the HCA in Kozarov v State of Victoria [2022] HCA 120 and Elisha v Vision Australia Limited [2024] HCA 50 and asks whether the common law has abandoned the more conservative assumptions which still prevail in the UK. Against that backdrop, it explores what further judicial reform is likely in Australia in cases of stress at work and harassment. The seminar also explores whether Elisha may lead to the HCA abandoning Addis v Gramophone [1909] AC 488 and allowing claims for injury to feelings should a breach of the employment contract occur.
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Douglas Brodie is Professor of Employment Law at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. He is an authority on Labour Law and Delict (Tort). His main research interests are in the area of the employment contract and in the area of Tort, the analysis of negligence. Much of his writing in recent years concerns the law of implied terms and the impact of relational contract theory on the law of the employment contract. He has a strong interest in comparative law and has a particular interest in developments in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
EVENT CHAIR Michael Rawling is Treasurer of the ALLA National Committee and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney. He has more than 15 years’ experience researching and teaching labour law. A key focus of his research has been how to regulate busi[1]ness models (such as supply chains and gig economy arrangements) based on precarious work and deployed to evade employment law. He has published widely on his main research interests which include the scope of labour law, labour law enforcement issues, and democracy at work.
alla@austlabourlaw.asn.au
Australian Labour Law Association
