The RACQ was entitled to sack an employee repeatedly punched in the face by a tow truck driver after attending an accident, a presidential member noting a lawyer's question as to what the worker might reasonably have expected when he pushed someone from an industry not known for its "shrinking violets".
The FWC has found it "fanciful" to suggest that an employer might allow a HR professional to send extensive confidential information to his personal email address without authorisation, ruling his serious misconduct warranted dismissal.
A 63-year-old brothel receptionist summarily sacked via an intermediary after 15 years of "loyal" service in the "happy little family" workplace will receive near-maximum compensation, after a FWC ruling.
A property manager who returned home to down scotch and cokes with her sister following a panic attack during her working time has won $9,000 compensation, after the FWC found her real estate agent employer failed to establish that the hours-long drinking session coincided with her remotely accessing its IT system and deleting and forwarding her emails and other documents.
In a decision questioning the value of medical certificates issued over the internet, a senior FWC member has excoriated a Melbourne lawyer after finding he claimed sick days in order to attend the AFL's Gather Round in Adelaide and "inexcusabl[y]" provided false evidence in pursuing his unfair dismissal case.
The FWC has found a supervisor's "grossly inappropriate" treatment of young subordinates amounted to a significant breach of his obligations and warranted his summary dismissal.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker who covertly recorded and shared conversations with colleagues and sent them offensive late-night emails while pursuing old grievances, a tribunal member observing that he "needed to be stopped".
The FWC has extended time due to representative error, after a lawyer with "extensive experience in employment matters" who is also the author of an article on his firm's website about the "hurdles" to "jump over" to make an unfair dismissal claim, including the 21-day time limit, lodged a client's application four days late.
The FWC has refused to hear a BP worker's three-day late challenge to her sacking after she revealed she ignored a clear direction not to record the disciplinary meeting at which the employer summarily sacked her.
A mining truck driver's mobile phone use, detected by an infra-red driver alertness system, justified her dismissal, after what the FWC deemed to be a fair investigation process.
