The FWC has upheld Sydney Trains' dismissal of a long-serving station manager for breaching its code of conduct when he failed to disclose serious criminal charges, including possession of more than two kilograms of cannabis he claimed to be holding "for a friend".
The FWC has rejected an employer's claim that it should throw out an employee's unfair dismissal claim because his earnings exceeded the high-income threshold by almost $40,000.
The FWC has granted an 18-day extension for a bin-hire worker to challenge her alleged sacking in light of evidence that her job loss left her homeless and that her limited technological skills scuttled several attempts to use her mobile phone to file her application.
A Serco prison dog handler's refusal to cooperate with a HR manager he accused of conducting a fishing expedition, covertly recording their interview and claiming in front of an inmate that he had evidence to "crumble the empire" warranted his summary dismissal, the FWC has held.
The FWC has rejected an unvaccinated child protection officer's faith-based challenge to her sacking, despite claims that requiring her to get a COVID-19 jab is akin to asking a Muslim worker "to have injections that s/he considered not Halal".
A FWC member has expressed amazement that an employer "pinned" alleged timesheet fraud on an employee when in fact his former manager performed the work.
The FWC has lambasted a senior government employee for their "reprehensible" attempts to prompt a witness by sending texts during a remote hearing of an unvaccinated worker's unfair dismissal case.
The FWC has found that a HR manager who quit after her employer changed her responsibilities was not forced to resign, noting that although she had to report to a different manager, "a change in a reporting line does not constitute constructive dismissal".
In returning a worker to her job and restoring most of her lost pay, finding the policy the worker breached "might make sense to copyright lawyers and some IT specialists, but probably no one else" the FWC has cautioned that "employer policy documents and manuals must be accessible, understandable and reasonable in their terms".
An employer alleging a "rogue" HR contractor's misconduct robbed it of a chance to defend a supervisor's unfair dismissal claim has failed to convince the FWC to revoke a decision that left it with a $34,000 compensation bill.
