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An employer's s-xual harassment investigation focused on a complainant's "subjective reactions" and failed to fully consider the context of an incident, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in ordering reinstatement.

In January last year, the Qantas aviation safety training instructor was the subject of a complaint from a female worker who'd attended one of his courses. She claimed he made eye contact with her for about 10 seconds before gazing at her chest for 10–20 seconds.

Addressing the class, he then allegedly said words to the effect of, "you can look into a person's eyes to see if they are responsive", laughed, and added that they may have noticed he was deliberately staring at the complainant's chest to see if she was breathing.

The complainant said she put her cardigan on and asked the employee to stop as he was making her feel uncomfortable, but he laughed off her request and, noticing she was blushing, made a comment about her face matching the colour of another participant's top...