FWC member and former ETU NSW branch secretary Bernie Riordan has thrown out a demand that he recuse himself from an anti-bullying case due to his alleged "connection" with a union leader named as a respondent, saying the tribunal would "grind to a halt" if it acceded to such requests.
The Fair Work Commission has found the Department of Veterans' Affairs did not force an assistant director to resign during a fitness‑for‑duty process, concluding he chose to quit rather than risk an adverse assessment.
The ETU has failed to halt a lockout it claimed a company unlawfully initiated in response to safety inspections at a major NSW workshop, with the FWC finding the employer gave ample warning it would close the gates if workers went on strike.
The FWC has reaffirmed that a job's inherent requirements do not need to be spelled out in employment contracts, upholding the dismissal of a Triple Zero employee who lost his security clearance for sharing information from a police database.
A senior FWC member has rebuked an experienced Telstra worker for wasting the tribunal's time on a "spiteful" anti-bullying bid based on "pedantic" complaints about his manager.
A database manager's "wise" choice at the time not to challenge his summary sacking for falsifying timesheets contrasted with his "ill advised" decision to contest it in the FWC, a tribunal member has observed.
A rope access technician has been ordered to pay $125,000 in costs after pursuing a failed underpayments and discrimination case described by the judge as "a textbook example of launching an action without reasonable cause".
The FWC has backed a ferry operator's sacking of a customer service worker who proved unable to meet the requirements of her role due to deep vein thrombosis, finding it could not offer "reasonable adjustments" to accommodate her incapacity.
An early childhood education trainee has won more than $10,000 compensation after the FWC found her employer had no reason to sack her by text based on "vague" examples of misconduct and failure to complete a qualification for which she had not yet been assessed.
The RBA had no obligation to pay a senior employee during a seven-month period when he claimed to be "ready and willing" to work as long as it did not involve consecutive days, "high stress" assignments or meeting with HR, the FWC has found.
