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.
In a decision laying bare one business's struggle to balance productivity and work-from-home arrangements, the FWC has concluded that it did not force a new father to resign when it told him to return to the office and increase his output.
The FWC has held that it has no power under the Fair Work Act's flexible work dispute provisions to deal with a National Australia Bank worker's challenge to the cancellation of her WFH flexibility arrangement after she allegedly failed to comply with its terms.
Workers should not refuse to resolve bullying at a workplace level just because they have an anti-bullying case underway, the FWC has found in dismissing a chief executive's claim against her husband during divorce proceedings, finding only a single instance of unreasonable conduct.
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 an employee who worked outside the scope of her role - potentially exposing her employer to liability - despite "defects" in the employer's processes.
The FWC has found employer unfairly dismissed a worker when it cut his shifts after he took up work at a competing branch of the same franchise, because it wanted workers committed to the "awesomeness" of the business.
The Ai Group has hinted at a potential "consensus" in a FWC-initiated case with economy-wide implications to consider inserting WFH provisions in the clerks award, while expressing concern that it would be "unfair" to require submissions ahead of results of a survey on the issue, with the tribunal now persuaded to ditch the deadline and hold a conference.
A tribunal has ordered a lawyer to pay more than $41,000 of the $371,000 in costs Legal Aid Queensland accrued in defending her "protracted" discrimination and victimisation claims, finding her legal knowledge and lack of supporting evidence justified an order against her.
The FWC has upheld a worker's flexible work request after his employer ended an informal 13-year arrangement, in a decision reaffirming the precedence of the NES, even when it is inconsistent with the terms of an enterprise agreement.
