A worker's continued refusal to take responsibility for a workplace car accident and his "highly inappropriate" emails criticising the investigation of the collision warranted his dismissal, the FWC has ruled.
A FWC presidential member has lambasted a union's legal team for leaving an illiterate member "high and dry" when deciding not to pursue a "more than arguable" dismissal challenge that ultimately led to reinstatement with full backpay.
UPDATED A High Court majority has clarified that a 115-year-old UK House of Lords decision does not bar the recovery of damages for botched sackings, restoring the award of $1.44 million to a consultant unable to work since his "sham" dismissal in 2015.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a long-serving Queensland Rail protection officer who took cocaine on the morning of his rostered night shift and claimed he only started using the drug to cope with the stress of a workplace investigation.
A Federal Court judge has cast doubt over a manager's $1.5 million adverse action payout in a ruling highlighting the difficulty in establishing who in large corporations ultimately makes the decision to dismiss an employee.
An engineer who lost a close relative in the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict was clearly offended when a manager directed him to move his desk into a project "war room", but his refusal still provided a valid reason for his dismissal, the FWC has found.
The FWC has found it "disproportionate" to summarily sack a HR general manager accused of creating an "unsafe" environment for her team and calling for their heads when they gave negative feedback, while also rejecting the employer's inference that she opportunistically used her distress over the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine war to explain her conduct.
An AMWU delegate sacked for allegedly outing non-union co-workers has been awarded the maximum available compensation after the FWC expressed surprise that his multinational employer's investigation could have been conducted "so badly".
An employer's failure to give a skipper an opportunity to respond to specific allegations about the circumstances surrounding a charter boat's costly collision with a channel marker did not provide sufficient reason to reverse his dismissal, the FWC has found.
Listed services giant Ventia has been ordered to pay $25,000 compensation after failing to persuade the FWC it had reason to sack a senior employee it claimed divulged commercially sensitive information to its former national hospitality and catering manager over a lunchtime catch-up.
