The FWC has rejected a real estate agent's claim that his employer fooled him into resigning, finding its move to enforce post-employment restraints after he joined a competitor did not retrospectively turn a mutually agreed separation into an unfair dismissal.
In a genuine redundancy ruling, the FWC has confirmed that it simply needs to consider whether employers have notified a retrenchment in writing, rather than whether they have provided notice in "the most optimum manner".
A new UK bill introduced by the Starmer Labour Government seeks to reduce the qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal from two years to an employee's first day of work, although employers will potentially have an initial nine months in which to sack those "not right for the job".
Drawing on limited legislative guidance and case law on instalment payments, the FWC has ordered an employer to split a $30,000 compensation payment over two months rather than the 12 it sought, finding the worker entitled to the "fruits" of his claim "in a timely manner".
A worker's covert recordings of disciplinary meetings might have been lawful if he had only used them to "aid his recall", rather than submitting the audio and transcripts as evidence in his unfair dismissal case, the FWC has ruled.
The FWC has backed the sacking of a worker who shoved and swore at a woman as they rode an elevator towards his office, rejecting his claims of self-defence and that the employer's code of conduct did not apply because his shift had not started.
An employer's request for a medical certificate demonstrating a senior manager's fitness for work after an extended absence would have been unlawful and unreasonable if his contract had not required him to participate in medical examinations.
A spurned TWU delegate found to have aired false bullying allegations against a co-delegate during a meeting at which he referred to him as "kid" and told him to put his "b-lls on the line" by holding a vote has lost his unfair dismissal case, despite his employer's procedural failings.
A retrenched educator who rejected an alternative role because she wanted to keep working from home at least a day a week has lost her severance entitlements, after the FWC found she did not have a formal right to maintain her flexible arrangements.
The FWC has found that a mine superintendent who "supervised supervisors" is not covered by the professional employees award and his pay exceeds the high income threshold, rendering him unable to pursue his unfair dismissal claim.
