In a warning to employers about ambiguous drug and alcohol policies, the FWC has in a 50-page decision highlighted the "inadequacy" of a multinational company's code as being among the reasons for reinstating a wharfie sacked for cocaine use.
In a decision closely considering when homelessness can provide the "exceptional circumstances" necessary to warrant extending time, the FWC has agreed to hear a one-day late claim after hearing the applicant spent a fortnight after his dismissal sleeping in his car.
The FWC has rejected an employer's bid to avoid paying redundancy entitlements to a nurse who refused to transfer to a higher-paying, non-nursing "technician" role.
In a decision weighing how close to "perfection" an employee's standards need to be, the FWC has upheld the sacking of an experienced scientist accused of "manipulating" data for a single BHP soil sample among thousands he helped test.
A large childcare operator has been ordered to pay more than $8000 compensation to a sacked worker falsely accused of telling a parent about her tenuous visa status in supposed breach of a company policy found by the FWC to impose no constraint on such interactions.
A former organiser who claims the UWU sacked her for exacerbating post-amalgamation "tensions" by pushing for a staff agreement has won a three-month extension to file her second unfair dismissal application, after a full bench found her first one barred as she lodged it while pursuing an adverse action case.
The FWC has awarded $20,000 to an on-hire mineworker sacked after testing positive for anti-depressants, finding that more consideration should have been given to his "genuine misunderstanding" of the host's new drug policy.
The removal of a long-serving on-hire worker on her host's instruction after she mislabelled two boxes amounted to an unfair dismissal but the FWC has "reluctantly" declined to order compensation despite the labour supplier's failure to "go into bat" for her.
The FWC has extended time for an 11-days-late unfair dismissal claim, after finding the HR professional representing her incorrectly advised her to send a letter of demand to the employer in the interests of "procedural fairness", leading to her missing the 21-day deadline.
A FWC full bench has refused to overturn the dismissal of a worker in a safety-critical role, upholding a member's finding that the seriousness of the worker's three positive drug tests outweighed procedural shortcomings.
