The FWC has poked holes in the record-keeping and training practices of an employer and its HR manager that summarily dismissed a long-serving employee for breaching its "zero tolerance" mobile phone policy without making sure he was aware of it.
In a closely-watched dismissal case contemplating how much weight should be attached to mitigating factors, an FWC majority full bench has reinstated a worker sacked for his foul abuse and threats to colleagues via text messages and phone calls while drunk.
An FWC full bench has accepted that ordering a "cooling off" period unfairly rewarded an employer for its intransigence in refusing to bargain during a protected strike.
The Federal Circuit Court has taken a broad view of what amounts to an employment-related complaint in ordering an employer to pay more than $150,000 in compensation and penalties for its adverse action when it sacked a senior employee who upbraided his chief executive for failing to pay outstanding invoices to a key subcontractor that had downed tools in protest.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a personal assistant who became entangled in a company power play, finding that her employer's belief that she lied to cover a director's tardiness satisfied the requirements of the small business code.
In its pursuit of a former economics professor for allegedly paying his employees as little as $10 an hour, the FWO is also seeking an injunction to restrain him from future breaches.
In a rare case turning on an employee's loss of trust in his employer rather than the other way around, the FWC has stepped back from ordering the reinstatement of a worker found to have been unfairly dismissed, despite describing it as the most "compelling" remedy.
The FWC has ordered a franchisee to compensate an unfairly dismissed employee who contacted head office to report her boss for drunkenness and drink driving in accordance with company whistleblowing provisions.
As Unions NSW calls for an "ironclad" deportation amnesty for foreign workers involved in wage theft investigations, an IR academic says a complete firewall between the FWO and the Department of Home Affairs would help move the law enforcement focus from migrants to their employers.
