The FWC has admonished a BHP subsidiary for taking a "haphazard" approach to its disciplinary guidelines, finding it had a valid reason to sack a mineworker for her "deviant" conduct when she put a s-x toy in a colleague's carry-on baggage, but procedural failings made it unfair.
The Federal Circuit Court has today ordered representative rugby union player Israel Folau to enter into mediation with Rugby Australia and the NSW Waratahs before his unlawful dismissal claim goes to trial on February 4 next year.
The FWC has refused to issue an interim anti-bullying order against an employer that excluded a cleaner from a workplace Christmas celebration and refused to give her leave on Australia Day, but has criticised its "poor and clumsy" handling of the worker's complaints.
Academics are warning of a "chilling effect" on the ability of public servants to express their political views, following today's High Court finding that a government department lawfully dismissed a public affairs officer over a barrage of highly-critical anonymous tweets.
A senior FWC member in upholding a Virgin Australia ground crew worker's dismissal over pilfered cigarettes has noted that "one's fate" is often sealed by attempted cover-ups rather than the actual misconduct, further observing that the former employee did himself no favours when posting on social media that the airline's HR partner was a "despicable human being".
In ordering the reinstatement of an "impatient" veteran crane operator sacked after his third safety breach in a year, an FWC member has examined BlueScope Steel's "proactive attitude" to discipline and recommended it negotiate a better process.
There is "no place for bawdy offensive alpha-male behaviour in the workplace", the FWC has found, in upholding the dismissal of a male worker for asking a female colleague for a kiss and telling another co-worker that he wanted to "f-ck" his sister.
The FWC has rejected a dismissed employee's contention that a company's duty of care extended to anticipating that he would act in a violent and threatening manner towards a co-worker.
The FWC has extended time for a BHP joint venture mineworker to lodge a general protections claim challenging his sacking over a failed drug test, but has agreed there is "great weight" to the employer's view that it is essentially an unfair dismissal application in disguise.
Two Esso Australia union delegates have failed to convince the FWC that their summary dismissals for isolating and abusing workers who accepted lower-paying contracts were unfair or in breach of the company's disciplinary policy.
