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 found a top sales operator made redundant the day before her parental leave started was in fact unfairly dismissed, with her employer apparently transferring into her role its lowest performer "by a significant margin".
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 found employer unfairly dismissed a worker when it cut his shifts after he took up work at a competing branch of the same franchise, because it wanted workers committed to the "awesomeness" of the business.
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.
An employer failed to "adhere to basic standards of decency" when it made an employee on parental leave redundant in an email, without consultation, in "a case that exemplifies the benefits" of having some form of "keeping in touch" system during parental leave, the FWC has found.
Working without a valid visa defeated a Costco employee's unfair dismissal claim, despite the necessary permit arriving within days of his sacking, the FWC has found.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a Qube worker despite finding she was treated less favourably than two colleagues over a safety incident causing 20 train wagons to roll away, but it has suggested the employer "revisit" potentially disciplining the exonerated pair.
In a decision emphasising the importance of independent medical examinations, the FWC has found it was unfair to dismiss a cold storage worker over an inability to endure sub-zero temperatures without first heeding his doctor's advice to trial a reduced workload.
A TWU delegate and rubbish truck driver who drank six beers at a union event but suggested his David Beckham cologne and sanitiser might explain his low-level positive reading for alcohol at work the next morning has failed to overturn his sacking.
