In an important out-of-hours conduct ruling, the FWC has reinstated a veteran train driver sacked after he told his employer that he faced possible imprisonment for blowing four times over the blood alcohol limit when police breath-tested him on the road.
The FWC has upheld a Qube subsidiary's sacking of a truck driver who blamed a positive blood alcohol reading on sucking on three-quarters of a 10-pack of Anticol cough lozenges to counter a dry throat.
FWC Deputy President Gerard Boyce has again run afoul of a tribunal bench, which has reminded him that conduct months after a dismissal cannot be considered when deciding whether an employer has a valid reason.
A manager unfairly accused of being a "malingerer" has had his near-$900,000 unlawful sacking payout slashed on appeal, a judge finding the original ruling contained enough errors to reduce the figure but stopping short of ordering a retrial.
A presidential FWC member has clarified the circumstances under which an employee can be said to have resigned, finding that a casual pool cleaner's repeated statement of intent did not qualify.
The FWC has refused to permit the Commonwealth Bank to bring in external lawyers to help it defend an unrepresented worker's unfair dismissal claim, despite the bank claiming its team of eight in-house employment solicitors are either unavailable or lacking recent experience.
Victoria Police has lost its bid to sack an officer for "disgraceful conduct" in allegedly exposing himself to a day spa therapist while getting his groin waxed, the State's Court of Appeal this month holding its review board rightly set the dismissal decision aside.
In a decision exploring when employers can be said to have repudiated employment contracts, the FWC has ruled that a multinational dismissed a worker when it "unilaterally" withdrew his company car without compensation following a collision with a kangaroo.
Employers operating in high-risk environments such as aged and child care have been given further confidence that they can force workers to immunise after the FWC today upheld the sacking of a long-serving care assistant who refused a compulsory flu shot on allergy grounds.
A government agency has been ordered to reinstate a worker dismissed a year after it attributed a workplace vehicle collision to "human error", the FWC finding it had produced no further evidence to warrant the change of heart.
