In a significant decision on FWC powers, a court has found that the Commission can dig into a university's finding that an academic plagiarised a student's work to establish whether it breached its agreement's disciplinary processes.
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.
A tribunal member has torn up his own certificate sending an adverse action case to court after accepting he prematurely found that efforts to resolve the matter had been exhausted.
An employer that sacked a worker absent on sick leave via an afternoon email has failed to establish she missed the deadline for filing a general protections claim, after the FWC held that she had no obligation to read it until she checked her messages the next day.
A major employer has for the second time in a year been ordered to reinstate a worker after the FWC again identified fatal flaws in its investigation processes.
The FWC has laid bare the difficulty of running what amount to underpayment cases against universities, finding in a union-run matter that not only did the employer have no system in place to reliably record hours but that the tribunal lacked the power to order compensation anyway.
An employer has failed to win a stay on a FWC decision knocking back its request to be represented by a lawyer, which would have delayed an underpayments case, after a senior member found its agreement only allows representation for those initiating disputes.
An organisation that supports members of the Stolen Generation did not have a reasonable basis for dismissing a worker for alleged "cultural insensitivity", but other conduct would have justified her sacking if it followed a proper process, the FWC has ruled.
The FWC has urged the AWU to address its unfair dismissal claim lodgement processes after the union revealed its use of an internal case management system has again played a role in an out-of-time application.
