An employer has clawed back just a fraction of costs it incurred in defending a "weak" and unreasonable unfair dismissal case after the FWC questioned why it needed lawyers to face off against a self-represented trainee nurse who "was not a formidable opponent".
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a Qube worker despite finding she was treated less favourably than two colleagues over a safety incident causing 20 train wagons to roll away, but it has suggested the employer "revisit" potentially disciplining the exonerated pair.
In a decision emphasising the importance of independent medical examinations, the FWC has found it was unfair to dismiss a cold storage worker over an inability to endure sub-zero temperatures without first heeding his doctor's advice to trial a reduced workload.
The High Court will next month begin hearing mining giant Peabody's challenge to a full Federal Court finding that it did not genuinely make workers redundant when it failed to consider whether it could redeploy workers to jobs performed by contractors.
An accounts manager seeking a month-long extension to lodge an unfair dismissal claim after initially filing a blank form has failed to convince the FWC it was exceptional that she missed the FWC's replies as they landed in her junk mail.
A customer service operator's "pregnancy brain" contributed to her filing a late application contesting her redundancy and was among the factors justifying an extension, the FWC has found.
A TWU delegate and rubbish truck driver who drank six beers at a union event but suggested his David Beckham cologne and sanitiser might explain his low-level positive reading for alcohol at work the next morning has failed to overturn his sacking.
The FWC has found that an employer forced a Jewish worker to resign when it failed to resolve a bullying dispute centred on her request to not work on Shabbat, amidst rumours it intended to get "rid of her".
A major construction company has avoided having to compensate a worker despite failing to properly consult with him over his redundancy, after the FWC found on balance that such "deficiencies" ultimately did not make the dismissal unfair.
