Case Study Of Labor Relations And Employment Law: NSW V Lepore (2003)

Identification of the facts in the NSW v Lepore (2003) case

Discuss about the case study for Labor Relations and Employment Law.

The education sectors such as school, college are those study fields where the students always feel to be safe and secure in their place. In the year of 2003, three cases were raised on the allegations that brought by the students of schools. It is about the sexual harassment of the students during the school hours. The situation was abrogated to the New South Wales District Court.

This assignment is based on the labour relations and employment laws. The primary reason for raising the case in Lepore is because of the sexual harassment of students during the school hours. The selected topic for this particular assignment is NSW v Lepore (2003) (Burns 2012). The successful transfer outcome will mention different acts and laws those are relevant to the labour relation. Here, the selected case study has several facts. The assignment reflects on the particular views of the background facts those are responsible for the case. Different liability related to the judgment which falls under the category of employment course and non- delegable duties.

• The high Court of Australia mentioned all the relevant events and also elaborated them accordingly. The events are as followed:
• The full bench of the high court of Australia gave the judgment in New South Wales v Lepore, Samin v Queensland, and Eich v Queensland.
• It is perturbed with sexual assault and physical harassment of pupils by his or her school teachers during the employment course. This particular case demonstrates the responsibility of the education department of Australia (Burns 2012). The situations are solved with the help of scrutinizing to very fundamental factors.
• The state government monitors the safety provided by the school authority within the campus during the school hours.
• Strict or universal laws which determine the responsibilities of the higher power to its subordinates
• The initial appeal of New South Wales v Lepore was made by the decision of the New South Wales Court of recourse.
• Two respondents rather appellant of the case are the victim, who is the student belonging from the state of NSW namely as Angelo Lepore sued and the teacher.
• When the boy was only seven years of old when the assault took place at a state primary school in new South Wales (NSW)
• The destruction to the harassment case occurred in the year of 1978, and the Court of Australia finally announced the final judgment of the case in the year of 2003. Thus, the case is famously named as NSW v Lepore.
• The teacher did this due to the particular unproven behavior of the student, but the teacher proved the misbehavior.
• During the investigation of the case the judge found the teacher as criminal and finally for frequent assaults and offenses, he was charged.
• The teacher faced a fine of $300, and he felt guilty for his misbehavior to the student. Along with this, he had to sign a bond which intended him to possessed good behavior in future cases with students and with others.
• He had to resign from the teacher's position, and he was announced to be no more eligible to take part in the proceeding of the district court.
• In this case, the judge was unable to find the issue initially but at last, he found the truth of the fact and the judgment was announced openly.

The sexual harassment case of New South Wales brings a dark wave in the legal field off Australia. The case took place in the year of 1978 but the judgment rather analysis was provided in the year of 2003 (Mullins and Griffiths 2015). The case was a massive conflict between both the appellant and their respective lawyers.  The Court of Canada gave the final decision related to the case. The relevant acts and laws provided by the judge were enacted or come as a resultant after the media take over the case, and the government of Canada was forced to take action against the pathetic situation.

The relevant laws are as followed:

• Division branch eight that is based on assault and the related acts are as followed:
• Obstacles in between the duties
• Charges on any person (Beuermann 2015)
• Bodily harm during the assault
• Attack in public

Division 8A- private actions against the police, enforcement officers level laws and sexual assaults. There are certain subdivisions also found in this case (Burns 2013). Such as

• 60AA- The law enforcement officers details meaning.
• 60- Assault and other actions against the police officers
• 60A- Different Actions against enforcement law (Foster 2013)
• 60B- Third Party connection with the enforcement laws
• 60C- Personal information about the law of implementation officer

According to the division branch 8B- This is related to the case of Assault in the school and education industries.

• 60D- Elaboration
• 60E- Harassment in the school premises during the school hour by the school teachers

Act 61- the indictments always prosecutes the standard assault case.

The judgment provided by the judges took a long-term discussion between the lawyers. The lawyers who acted for the case arrived in NSW took a long time also to make the final decision (Ronalds and Raper 2012). The analysis of the case was contradicted to one another rather it can be said that the decision was difficult to take by the judge. Before the final determination making, lots of rules and regulation in law have emerged in the Canada high court (Terry and Huan 2012). At the same time, there was no such evidence found by the victim which could prove the teacher as a criminal. Thus, it was little difficult for the judge to take the final decision.

Explanation of relevant laws related to NSW v Lepore (2003) case

Both the victim and the prosecutor were trying to play defensive but due to lack of evidence both of them were unable to prove their opinions. From the act of laws, it is finally proved that the allegations those were brought by the teacher, that the student misbehaved with him was not proved (Mullins and Griffiths 2015). He was trying to demonstrate that he did not harass him sexually rather the student was misbehaving with him. But as the whole case took much time to make the final decision, the victim's lawyer proved that it was tough for a seven-year-old boy to misbehave with some time. It can be said that the student was a kid who makes mistakes, but the teacher has no such right to harass him sexually (Burns 2012). Child sexual assault has high level punishment acts.

While the case was running on the court, the news medium helped a lot to the victim’s family to get justice. During the case, the judges and the number lawyers were also changed lots of time as it was a long term running case (Gesuele and Alvino 2014). As it was just changing its dates the victim’s family is forced to take the help of the news medium. As the story moved on to the news medium, the higher authority board of directors of Canada district court was bound to take the final action against the teacher.

After a long time, the judge made his decision and stated some rules and regulations for the school authority. It was also said that the school administration has to maintain all the rules and privacy policies stated by the high court of Canada (Foster 2013). The employment method should always maintain all the particular steps those are necessary for the recruitment processes. At the same time, only the eligible person should be allowed. The security of the school authority needs to be increased (Crawford et al. 2016). As during the school hours, all the students are the responsibility of the school committee. Thus, a single mistake can harm the life of a student.

These are the ongoing discussions moved on while the case was running in the high court.

From the above discussion, it is found that the case took place in New South Wales in the year of 1978, but the final decision has arrived after a long-term investigation that is in the year of 2003. The laws according on the act 60A, 60AA implies that sexual harassment within the workplace or educational field is a crime (Terry and Huan 2012). The people who will found to make this kind of mistakes will be punished according to the laws.

Discussion of legal arguments raised by parties in NSW v Lepore (2003) case

At the same time, from the case study, it is found that the teacher is committed the error meant he harassed the seven years old boy who is the student of his school. The court charged him with several acts for which, he was responsible (Stuhmcke and Stewart 2014). The court also charged him $300.  He also had to resign from the position of a primary school teacher. Not only this but also he had to sign a bond where it was written that in future he would never make this kind of mistakes.

The case took place in New South Wales, Australia, where the victim was seven years old boy, and the case was filed against his teachers of his school (Morrison 2013). According to the teacher, the kid misbehaved with him. Therefore, the teacher had no option else giving him a strict punishment (Spyrou 2015). Whereas according to the boy the no such misbehavior was made by him.

 The case was filed in the year of 1978, but the court gave his final judgment in 2003 and after this case, the New South Wales Acts were enacted by the tribunal of law (Stuhmcke and Stewart 2014). Though the case was initially not proving proper outcomes after the interruption of news medium, the court played an active role in this case (Crawford et al. 2016). The justice finally brought to the victim’s side. The teacher found as a criminal and was charged a penalty of $300 (Ronalds and Raper 2012). In addition to this, he also had to resign from the post of the primary school teacher.

The scope of the acts had a positive impact on the legal field. Due to the strict actions were taken by the court in future criminals will be scared to do something like this (Beuermann 2015). It means that the amount of crime will also decrease.

Conclusion

The decision provided by the court was initially a conflict between the applicants that is the teacher and the student. From the judgment, it is found that the case went through various contradictions and various argumentative discussions. From the overall study the judge claimed certain rules and since that time the rules are regularly followed by the people living in New South Wales. It is argued that the recruitment process for employment, in this case, it is the hiring of the teachers should maintain all the appropriate steps. The process must face all the risk factors so that the possibility of occurrence of risks is analyzed before the final adoption of the regulations. In this assignment, the student who was the victim of sexual assault in the workplace obtained justice by the act of laws.

From all the above discussion it can be said that the case study reflects on criminal acts those are related to the school level harassment during the school hours.

References

Beuermann, C., 2015. Conferred authority strict liability and institutional child sexual abuse Sydney L. Rev., 37, p.113.

Burns, K., 2012. The Australian high court and social facts: A content analysis study.

Burns, K.L., 2013. It’s not just policy: The role of social facts in judicial reason

Crawford, J., Chambers, S., Cohen, D., Williams, A., Griffiths, A. and Stelcer, E., 2016 Assessing the impact of atmospheric stability on locally and remotely sourced aerosols at Richmond, Australia, using Radon-222.Atmospheric Environment, 127, pp.107-117.

Dwyer, A. and Easteal, P.L., 2013. Cyber bullying in Australian schools: The question of negligence and liability.

Foster, N.J., 2013. Attribution of Liability for Workplace Injuries Caused by Non-Employees-Recent Developments in the Law of Non-Delegable Duty

Gesuele, B. and Alvino, F., 2014 Social Determinants and E-Disclosure: Empirical Evidence From Spain. Journal of USA–China Public Administration, 11(7), pp.557-563

Morrison, A., 2013. Compensation for child sexual abuse in religious institutions Precedent (Sydney, NSW), (116), p.35

Mullins, G. and Griffiths, S., 2015 Intentional torts and the civil liability legislation Precedent (Sydney, NSW), (130), p.15

Pelletier, R., Handal, B., Khalil, J. and Franicis, T., 2015 Cyberbullying-when does a school authority's liability in tort end?. The Western Australian Jurist,6

Ronalds, C. and Raper, E., 2012. Discrimination law and practice Federation Press

Silink, A., 2015. Can Promissory Estoppel Be an Independent Source of Rights. UW Austl. L. Rev., 40, p.39.

Spyrou, P., 2015.Civil Liability For Negligence: An Analysis Of Cyberbullying Policies In South Australian Schools. UniSA Student Law Review, (1).

Stewart, P. and Stuhmcke, A., 2014. High Court Negligence Cases 2000–10.

Stuhmcke, A.G. and Stewart, P., 2014. High Court Negligence Cases 2000–10. The Sydney Law Review.

Terry, A.L. and Huan, J.L., 2012. Franchisor liability for franchisee conduct.Monash UL Rev., 39, p.388