A mineworker has won reinstatement after her sacking for revealing the email addresses of 850 workers in a fundraising blast, the FWC warning employers in the process about the need to maintain distance between dismissal decision-makers and those "involved directly in the facts" of a matter.
A FWC full bench has reinstated a rubbish truck driver sacked for a low-level alcohol reading, finding that the initial decision relied on reasons the employer had not put forward, without considering whether the driver had an opportunity to respond.
The FWC has refused to extend time for a worker who attempted to file his unfair dismissal claim two hours before the deadline, finding that by waiting until the last minute, he risked encountering technical difficulties.
The FWC has ordered reinstatement for a professor who sent "intimate and romantic" messages to a student, including a photo of himself in his boxers, finding that his seven-year unblemished record since his recently-uncovered relationship mitigated his behaviour.
A worker who threatened his managers that he would set bikies on them and that he had "a bullet with your name on it" resigned in the "heat of the moment" and should have been given the chance to retract it, but the FWC has upheld his dismissal because his menacing behaviour amounted to serious misconduct.
A HR manager opportunistically accused a disgruntled employee of leaking confidential information to "put the blow-torch" to him over his dogged pursuit of underpayments, a court has found.
The FWC has refused to reduce a worker's 16-week redundancy payment after finding that when it comes to determining whether an employer has offered "other acceptable employment", assisting with identifying alternatives "falls short" of procuring a new role.
A FWC full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a wharfie who tested positive for cocaine, rejecting employer arguments that the Commission's approach to appeals is "broadly wrong" and should involve reassessing a case rather than searching for errors in the original decision.
Increasing the small business unfair dismissal definition from 15 to 20 employees by headcount would expose an extra 500,000 workers to inferior protections, while lifting it to 50 would affect almost an additional two million, according to an FWO report that says there is insufficient consensus across the IR spectrum to support any change.
A former ATO director who claims sustained bullying and harassment forced her to move to the AEC has failed to establish it constitutes a dismissal, after she used the Public Service Act's voluntary transfer provisions.
