The FWC has found that an engineer's "extremely insulting" WhatsApp messages about his manager, sent to colleagues on a day off, warranted his summary sacking, while nevertheless awarding him $14,000 compensation because the employer denied him a chance to explain.
A tribunal is poised to order a council to pay more than $900,000 to a worker it discriminated against by sacking him over his inability to drive an allocated vehicle, in a decision panning a "chilling" suggestion that show cause letters formed part of consultations to identify reasonable adjustments.
A FWC full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a senior academic sacked for s-xual harassment, noting that while his "creepy" conduct breached the university's Appropriate Workplace Behaviour policy, he had apologised to the employee and had no further contact with her after HR intervened three years before his dismissal.
The FWC has ordered compensation for an unfairly sacked WesTrac specialist who altered a leave claim to secure payment for public holidays during the Stokes family-controlled company's end-of-year shutdown period.
Underpayments spike as FWO calls for end to "adversarialism"; FWC launches sexual harassment tool; Reinstatement for "phat arse" worker; SCHADS pay rises deferred; and ANMF wins scope orders for aged care nurses.
The FWC has declined to reinstate a wharfie jailed for stalking radio star Jackie 'O' Henderson, instead awarding him $50,000 compensation after noting that his criminal record posed a significant hurdle to regaining the government security card necessary to work on the docks.
The FWC has taken aim at an employer's "lacking" response to workload concerns, in a decision ordering it to reinstate an aged care coordinator it "bombarded with criticism" and accused of putting clients at risk.
The FWC has awarded $4000 compensation to an allegedly unhelpful IT help desk employee, reminding employers that performance-managing workers is about clear expectations and the steps required to meet them rather than "handholding".
The FWC has awarded almost $25,000 to a former nightclub bookkeeper after finding that the company did not sufficiently remove her ex-husband and majority owner from the decision to sack her for mistakenly posting a t-pless photo in a workplace WhatsApp group.