The FWC has backed the Commonwealth Bank's sacking of an "insubordinate" worker who argued it could not discipline him for pummelling his manager with abusive text messages because he sent them outside of working hours.
The FWC has extended time for a worker's general protections application after one of its employees gave her "inappropriate" advice, after which she discontinued her initial claims.
The FWC has found that a worker failed to establish an "objective rational connection" between her age and her flexible working request, after she resisted ANZ's hybrid working policy and asked to work 100% from home because of her fear of catching COVID-19.
The FWC has upheld the summary dismissal of a forklift driver, after he left work to avoid a drug test, claiming that he had an "accident" in his trousers.
The Federal Court has imposed a record penalty on a sushi restaurant chain to "disabuse" employers of the notion that penalties for underpayments are "an acceptable cost of doing business" and recommended that the Fair Work Ombudsman refer its chief executive's potential flouting of tax and migration laws to the ATO, Department of Home Affairs and ASIC.
The FWC has granted a worker a one day extension for his unfair dismissal claim due to the merits of his case, after he alleged his employer summarily dismissed him for a positive drug test taken during a period of annual leave, when its zero tolerance policy would not apply.
In a case that weighs up employer rights when conducting investigations under commonly-used agreement provisions, a FWC full bench has rejected a worker's request for an investigation report that details his alleged misconduct, but has suggested the employer re-open its probe because it denied him natural justice.
The FWC has warned employers against giving "generic and blanket HR answers" when they provide their "reasonable business grounds" for knocking back flexibility requests, before ultimately rejecting a bid from a worker with challenging caring responsibilities to continue working entirely from home.
The FWC has reinstated a long-serving worker accused of violent threats to a colleague, finding the employer's circumstantial evidence fell short and did not establish that the incident occurred.
An employer's failure to properly communicate the result of an investigation to a worker accused of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate increased his discomfort at work, but did not force him to resign, the FWC has found.
