In an important ruling on out-of-hours conduct, the FWC has found that an employer didn't need to receive a complaint before investigating then sacking a worker for sharing a p--nographic video via social media with friends who included 19 male and female work colleagues.
In a decision sure to be closely analysed by employers, a court has ruled that a worker is entitled to accrued annual leave despite being paid a casual loading for 15 years.
The FWC has upheld Bluescope Steel's sacking of a long-serving employee for his "appalling" timekeeping, but has found the company didn't have enough evidence to establish that he defecated in the workplace shower.
The FWC has highlighted the additional credibility provided when employers test for drugs in accordance with the Australian Standard, in upholding a multinational mining company's sacking of a marijuana smoker who breached its zero tolerance policy.
Abandonment of employment clauses have been removed from six modern awards in the wake of an FWC full bench ruling that employers must take the "additional step" of ending the employment relationship when a worker walks off the job.
An FWC full bench has upbraided a tribunal member for suppressing the name of a sexual harassment complainant without proper consultation, but has upheld the sacking of a manager for the "hostile" and "derogatory" comments he directed at the trainee.
The FWC has ruled on the out-of-hours conduct of a maintenance worker who claimed he was acting in self-defence when he ended up in a fight after a "horsing-around" passer-by took his cowboy hat, leading to his expulsion from the giant Wheatstone LNG project.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a TAFE manager for preparing a false and misleading briefing note in a bid to exculpate himself from responsibility after becoming "caught up" in a training scam, and has rejected his submissions that the employer made him a scapegoat.
A contested payslip and an unsigned employment contract obtained in "unusual" circumstances have persuaded the FWC that an ambassador's driver was unfairly dismissed after he informed the embassy he couldn't work for more than two hours at a time because of a sore back.
The FWC has refused to extend time for an unfair dismissal claim lodged five days late by a pro bono solicitor found to be "primarily responsible" for the delay, ruling that the worker knew the 21-day limit applied and should have followed it up with his representative.
