An unlisted mining exploration company has failed to claw back legal costs that included a 14-day trial defending claims brought by its former "whistleblower" chief executive, after the Federal Court found his rejection of two settlement offers justified when he stood to receive "substantial" penalties for workplace breaches.
A 63-year-old brothel receptionist summarily sacked via an intermediary after 15 years of "loyal" service in the "happy little family" workplace will receive near-maximum compensation, after a FWC ruling.
A FWC full bench has emphatically quashed a deputy president's decision to bin a worker's unfair dismissal application with five hours' notice just two days before Christmas, finding he misapplied the Commission's powers and "misapprehended" the facts.
The FWC has found that a company director fell below the high-income cap because he reduced his pay through "wage loans" when the business struggled and the loans amounted to debts rather than earnings, or payments that could not be determined in advance.
A property manager who returned home to down scotch and cokes with her sister following a panic attack during her working time has won $9,000 compensation, after the FWC found her real estate agent employer failed to establish that the hours-long drinking session coincided with her remotely accessing its IT system and deleting and forwarding her emails and other documents.
The ACT's education department must find an additional $8000 after a court increased penalties for breaching an agreement's job security terms in the case of a former public school teacher claiming she was unlawfully dismissed in 2016.
In a decision questioning the value of medical certificates issued over the internet, a senior FWC member has excoriated a Melbourne lawyer after finding he claimed sick days in order to attend the AFL's Gather Round in Adelaide and "inexcusabl[y]" provided false evidence in pursuing his unfair dismissal case.
The FWC has found a top sales operator made redundant the day before her parental leave started was in fact unfairly dismissed, with her employer apparently transferring into her role its lowest performer "by a significant margin".
The FWC has found a supervisor's "grossly inappropriate" treatment of young subordinates amounted to a significant breach of his obligations and warranted his summary dismissal.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker who covertly recorded and shared conversations with colleagues and sent them offensive late-night emails while pursuing old grievances, a tribunal member observing that he "needed to be stopped".
