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 FWC's longest-serving member has provided a detailed exposition of the tribunal's approach to suppression orders, reinforcing that it is not merely about "public understanding" of her reasons for finding that an employer did not force an experienced HR manager to resign after less than five months in the job.
A worker has been allowed to proceed with an out-of-time unfair dismissal application after his employer failed to tell him he had been taken off the roster, "dangled" the prospect of future shifts in front of him for almost a year, and led him to believe he remained on the books.
The FWC has emphasised its "high bar" for extending time, finding no basis to accept a general protections claim submitted at the last minute but received 16 seconds late, nor another lodged just four seconds beyond the 21-day statutory deadline.
The FWC has found Australia Post's failure to meet its service commitments to blame for a worker's late unfair dismissal claim, with his express mail held up in the tribunal's PO box despite it paying for a daily delivery service.
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.
The FWC has given short shrift to a part-time paid agent who claimed "other commitments" meant he was unable to meet a filing deadline, a senior member observing that the advocate's involvement had done nothing to improve the efficient disposition of an unfair dismissal matter.
In a significant decision on diplomatic immunity, a full Federal Court has tossed out an embassy's claim that it enjoys protection from unfair dismissal proceedings, confirming in the process that the FWC has standing as a "court" under the relevant legislation.
Two food delivery service founders have won more than $150,000 in compensation after their sacking by a company chair whose "total disregard" for procedural fairness made it unlikely he would be swayed by HR advice.
An Amazon on-hire worker has been reinstated and awarded almost $15,000 after a FWC member speculated that her threat to go to the tribunal over the reaction to announcing her pregnancy prompted her employer to "circle the proverbial wagons".
