The FWC has upheld the sacking of a school lab assistant who "forcefully" slapped the hand of a 15-year-old student who had been flicking pieces of a bull's eye in a science class, finding it hard to imagine when such "violence" would be appropriate "in this day and age".
A labour supplier could not be expected to force the host to change its stance on revoking an on-hire worker's site access for conduct the employer found only warranted a warning, but validly dismissed him for his inability to perform his job's inherent requirements due to his expulsion, the FWC has found.
The FWC has agreed to hear a bank employee's late challenge to his sacking for allegedly fraudulently disputing a credit card transaction, accepting sufficient doubts surrounded his intentions, the connection to work and the fairness of effectively ending his chances of ever landing a job in the industry again.
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.
The FWC has made it clear that a "mere preference" for working at home without providing sufficient evidence of responsibilities or needs will not pass the first hurdle for a flexible work order.
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 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 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.
The ABC must pay $70,000 compensation for non-economic loss to presenter Antoinette Lattouf for terminating her employment for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, after a Federal Court ruling this morning.
