The FWC has found an Aboriginal corporation took unlawful adverse action by sacking three cultural heritage field officers for failing to prove ancestral connections, noting it was a by-product of the misery inflicted on victims of the stolen generation.
The FWC has taken the rare step of ordering indemnity costs against a manager accused of HR breaches, finding she kept pressing a "doomed to fail" unfair dismissal application in a bid to inflict maximum harm, but it has thrown out a costs claim against her solicitor.
Dismissal should be effected "in person"; Highly-paid manager not award-covered; Late claim sent to FWC staffer to proceed: Bench; Claim survives non-compliance with evidence deadline.
A large employer's failure to tell an employee what claims were being investigated before conducting a recorded interview was among a number of flaws identified by the FWC in a procedurally "infected" dismissal.
The FWC has emphasised that young women should not have to tell older superiors that they don't want sexually loaded communications, upholding the sacking of a senior council worker who insisted younger co-workers welcomed his numerous salacious texts.
The Fair Work Ombudsman's prosecution of food delivery service Foodora has been followed by a landmark decision on the gig economy by the UK Supreme Court.
In refusing an extension of time application, the FWC has found incorrect advice that a "no-win/no-fee" law firm allegedly gave a worker about the cut-off date for lodging her unfair dismissal application would not constitute representational error as it declined her business.
A prison officer effectively sacked twice after pleading guilty to assaulting three inmates has again won his job back, an appeal court finding that the IR commissioner who originally reinstated him had correctly focused on what is fair and just, rather than "the reputation of the government".
The FWC has extended time for a BHP joint venture mineworker to lodge a general protections claim challenging his sacking over a failed drug test, but has agreed there is "great weight" to the employer's view that it is essentially an unfair dismissal application in disguise.
In a broad warning to employees mixing social media and work, the FWC has found that a BHP Billiton mineworker was justifiably sacked despite upon realising his error quickly deleting two Facebook posts mistakenly asserting shifts were cancelled.
