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.
An Uber driver's failure to convince the FWC that he is an employee is unlikely to deter other challenges according to an academic, while the case raises questions as to whether traditional legal tests can be applied to the gig economy.
The FWC has acceded to a request to delay an unfair dismissal hearing for two AMWU delegates sacked by Visy Board for allegedly organising unlawful overtime bans, so that they don't prejudice their position in a parallel civil penalty prosecution the company has initiated against the union, an official and 69 employees.
A home-based sales representative has been compensated after the FWC found that he was sacked within a day of receiving a "manifestly unreasonable" ultimatum to pack up his life in Byron Bay and return to work in his employer's Sydney office.
A Rio Tinto employee has been reinstated after the FWC highlighted starkly different recommendations in investigations conducted by its HR and safety experts.
The FWC has upheld a building company's sacking of a safety officer who insisted his job was limited to an advisory capacity despite repeated warnings that he was to rigorously enforce safety across sites.
