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.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of an employee who worked outside the scope of her role - potentially exposing her employer to liability - despite "defects" in the employer's processes.
The FWC has extended time for a worker's unfair dismissal claim by 24 days because his employer, which "flouted its legal employment obligations and ignored the FWO", withheld his payslips and employment contract, preventing him from identifying the entity that employed him.
The FWC has ruled that just as a dismissal only takes effect when it is communicated to the worker, a resignation can equally only apply when the employer becomes aware of it.
A trainee disability therapist sacked for failing to complete the necessary accreditation has won compensation after the FWC found his employer gave him insufficient time to correct the situation following his "confrontational" response to being stood-down.
A finding that the FWC cannot keep dealing with disputes brought under old agreements once a new deal comes into effect has produced "arbitrary, anomalous and nonsensical outcomes" and is wrong, a full bench has held, calling for an amendment to the Fair Work Act to reflect the new precedent.
The FWC in upholding the sacking of an unvaccinated KFC worker has found it "regrettable" HR sent auto-generated letters that led her to believe she was dismissed for abandoning her job.
The FWC has upheld an employer's entitlement to sack a depressed worker who could no longer perform his job after 33 years, but held it fluffed its lines by failing to extend him the "courtesy" of a chance to respond to its decision.
An experienced tribunal member failed to properly apply the statutory test for assessing unfair dismissals before ordering the reinstatement of six waterfront shift managers, a FWC full bench has found.