An employer that summarily dismissed a casual worker who abused and threatened colleagues should have offered her an opportunity to explain behaviour that might hypothetically have been a reaction to the death of a beloved pet, the FWC has found.
In another blow to stevedore DP World as it weathers a campaign of rolling strikes, an FWC full bench majority has upheld a ruling that it was not entitled to unilaterally end an income protection scheme for its container terminal employees.
A multinational law firm has failed in its bid to have a former manager's sex discrimination claim struck out, a court instead granting her permission to replead her "significantly flawed" application.
In the midst of rolling stoppages across DP World's container terminals in four cities, the FWC has told the company to comply with its good faith bargaining obligations by dropping its objection to the participation of an injured MUA WA branch delegate in negotiations for the Fremantle deal.
A landmark contempt finding and accompanying jail sentence hailed as proof of the FWO's commitment to justice has been overturned by a full Federal Court that found the ruling judge's "open" hostility to the underpaying employer compromised his ability to consider the evidence.
The long-serving former chief executive of a Queensland charity is more than $30,000 out of pocket after securing a minor win as part of his wrongful termination case but being labelled "dishonest" in his employer's successful cross-claim.
An employee criticised as being ungrateful about securing a restaurant job despite her disability has won $12,500 in compensation for the hurt and humiliation she experienced during her dismissal after 12 weeks.
In a decision vindicating the FWO's resistance to the grouping of multiple contraventions for the purpose of setting penalties, the workplace watchdog has won a fivefold increase in fines imposed on an underpaying company director.
A senior FWC member in upholding a Virgin Australia ground crew worker's dismissal over pilfered cigarettes has noted that "one's fate" is often sealed by attempted cover-ups rather than the actual misconduct, further observing that the former employee did himself no favours when posting on social media that the airline's HR partner was a "despicable human being".
