An FWC full bench has cleared the way for a commissioner to redetermine an employer's objections that a worker allegedly sacked when a stranger handed her an unmarked envelope at her home did not qualify for unfair dismissal protection because it should be deemed a small business.
A former TWU official has lost a bitter dispute with the union over his dismissal in 2014, which he claimed was motivated by his absence from work due to a back injury.
The FWC has stymied a company director's unfair dismissal claim for a second time, after a fresh hearing affirmed his car allowance and other benefits put his earnings beyond the high income threshold.
The FWC has allowed an employee to file an unfair dismissal claim 33 days late, on the grounds that he had been hospitalised due to a suicide attempt four days after his sacking.
The FWC has rejected an employer's claim it did not summarily dismiss an apprentice by text, describing a later email in which the teenager was told "we are holding your position open" as a "retroactive" attempt to characterise the worker as having quit.
An employer who failed to record a worker's serial misconduct, provide a written warning or give him an opportunity to respond nevertheless did not deny him a fair go when forcing him to resign following a brief lunch room meeting, the FWC has found.
The FWC has thwarted a manager's unfair dismissal claim by assessing his earnings as $315.02 above the high income threshold, rejecting his arguments that his car allowance, annual leave loading and mobile phone should be excluded from the total.
In the latest ruling on the distinction between independent contractors and employees, the FWC has found that a graphic designer whose hours for related small employers were "negotiated" on a weekly or fortnightly basis over almost three years was capable of being dismissed.
A Sydney-headquartered technology company had no obligation to pay redundancy to a former regional marketing manager based in Singapore as he did not perform any work in Australia, a court has found.
A Sydney-based Canadian paid a regular monthly untaxed figure in US dollars by a Calgary-headquartered company for which he agreed to act as an independent contractor has had his unfair dismissal claim upheld, with the FWC finding he was not genuinely retrenched.
