The FWC has allowed a worker to proceed with her unfair dismissal case after it found that counting the employer's director and company secretary lifted numbers above the 15-employee threshold that excludes small businesses.
A senior FWC member has declined to recuse himself from hearing an unfair dismissal case brought by a disbarred lawyer who accused him of "blatant bias" and having a "sweet little racket" bullying unrepresented workers.
An employer has won permission to have a legal representative defend an unfair dismissal case in the face of opposition from a sacked former employee who failed to disclose he is a highly-experienced lawyer disbarred after a conviction for s-xual assault.
An FWC presidential member has taken a swipe at a "misleading" state government website for wrongly convincing a public servant that the federal tribunal was the right forum in which to contest her dismissal.
The FWC has agreed to hear a senior public sector lawyer's claims he was denied pay rises after being "admonished" for wearing Zara brand shoes, despite a court finding his employer conducted two procedurally fair investigations before sacking him for misconduct.
A worker has been granted a 13-day extension for filing an unfair dismissal application after the FWC accepted his sacking during the coronavirus pandemic left him in "a bad way".
A tribunal member has determined it would be an "overly formal" exercise of the FWC's powers to bin a late unfair dismissal claim after the applicant was belatedly informed she had filed an incomplete form.
In a significant decision considering representative error, a solicitor has failed to convince the FWC that his miscalculations in filing a late unfair dismissal application justified an extension, after the worker waited 15 days to confirm she wanted to proceed.
A Salvation Army recruitment agency worker accused of threatening to break colleagues' fingers if they adjusted the air conditioning has failed to convince the FWC that her stress disorder and a delayed dismissal letter justified an extension of time.
Members who pursue unfair dismissal applications through their union should expect the same expertise and professionalism as would be provided by a lawyer, the FWC has found in granting an extension of time due to representative error.
