The FWC has awarded more than $30,000 compensation to a "frazzled" truck driver sacked after admitting to smoking a joint a few days before returning a positive roadside test result.
A small business and its owner have been hit with fines, compensation and damages totalling more than $300,000 after the "deplorable" exploitation of a young worker with an intellectual disability who went almost two years without being paid.
The FWC has awarded $15,000 compensation to a couple sacked within hours of each other for allegedly bullying the same manager by invoking a "summoning ritual" involving a pentagram and rubber ducks, and "mocking" her in a workplace chat group.
A senior FWC member has tripled the compensation sought by a worker sacked after her mother called the employer to convey in "abrupt and firm" tones that it should stop insisting on documentary evidence of a close relative's sudden death before paying bereavement leave.
A power industry worker who invited a colleague to continue their verbal jousting "outside" and told his supervisor to "get f--ked too" has won his job back after the FWC found his actions out of character in circumstances where he faced significant family health issues and "banter" was part of the workplace culture.
The FWC has applauded an employer for its "strong stance" in sacking a worker who told a toolbox meeting that Chinese people are "taking our jobs", but nevertheless awarded him $4000 compensation because of shortcomings in the dismissal process.
The FWC is considering the remedy for an unfairly dismissed labourer after the death of his employer, who sacked him via text message because he lodged a WorkCover claim and planned to take time off to recover from a workplace injury.
An "outstanding" teacher sacked for messaging students and giving them lifts has been awarded compensation after the FWC found that his dismissal disproportionate, given its "catastrophic" consequences.
An employer that underpaid an IT specialist it treated as a contractor for 14 years should have addressed the "uncertainty" involved, but its misdeeds nevertheless fell at "the lower end of the seriousness spectrum", a court has found in a penalty ruling.
