In a warning to employers undertaking investigations of workplace complaints, the FWC has ordered a mushroom grower to compensate a former harvest team leader sacked on the basis of "scanty" hearsay evidence and the "sheer number" of allegations about bullying and racial discrimination.
An environmental consultancy fluffed its summary dismissal of a technician for alleged timesheet fraud when it had a watertight case to sack him for poor performance, the FWC has found.
The FWC has ruled that an intoxicated FIFO female mineworker rubbing up against and trying to hold hands with her male colleagues when commuting to her worksite amounted to harassment and s-xual harassment and warranted BHP dismissing her.
A FWC presidential member has suggested policymakers give greater consideration to recognising the "industrial qualifications" of migrant workers after ruling an employer unfairly dismissed a factory hand when it made him redundant without consultation due to his unsuccessful attempts to obtain an Australian forklift licence.
The FWC has found a long-serving BHP Coal worker who had "clearly not adjusted to the modern workplace" s-xually-harassed two colleagues, but a rushed investigative process and lack of a proper opportunity to respond rendered his dismissal unfair.
A shareholding employee sacked by his "toxic" family business for raising his voice at a salesperson has won compensation but missed out on reinstatement due in part to his court bid to wind up the company.
The FWC has upheld a law firm's dismissal of a solicitor accused of "gaming" its timekeeping system to boost a junior colleague's billable hours and telling an opposing practitioner his client was a "c-nt".
The FWC has ordered the Reserve Bank to pay compensation after its "unnecessarily abrupt" sacking of a long-serving manager while he took leave, finding it led him to believe at the mid-point of a performance management process that he remained "on track" to retain his job.
In a case that weighs up employer rights when conducting investigations under commonly-used agreement provisions, a FWC full bench has rejected a worker's request for an investigation report that details his alleged misconduct, but has suggested the employer re-open its probe because it denied him natural justice.
The FWC has reinstated a long-serving worker accused of violent threats to a colleague, finding the employer's circumstantial evidence fell short and did not establish that the incident occurred.
