In a significant decision as to what constitutes industrial action, a full Federal Court has found that the legislative framework does not capture instances where a subcontractor's workers down tools with the support of their direct employer.
Social media "moves the dial" on harassing workplace behaviour and will contribute to more litigation flowing through to the courts, according to Australian Human Resources Institute chair Peter Wilson.
The Australian Electoral Commission was entitled to summarily sack a team leader for fudging industrial election figures to mask errors made by an inexperienced colleague, the FWC has found.
The FWC has highlighted the pitfalls for workers who opt to resign rather than risk reputational damage from being sacked, in a case in which it says it would have deemed any dismissal unfair.
A Federal government department acted reasonably in dismissing an employee who secretly recorded conversations with colleagues and required daily management from five different executives during an 18-month absence from work, the FWC has ruled.
The FWC has found that a firefighter's dishonesty in concealing a professional ban arising from indecent assaults was sufficient reason for his dismissal, even after rejecting the employer's own reasons as invalid.
In a case likely to test whether an employer can argue one of a position's inherent requirements is not to publicly attack a business partner, a former manager will claim Cricket Australia took adverse action by sacking her for tweeting criticism of the Tasmanian Liberal Party's abortion policies.
The FWC has confirmed the right of employers in safety-critical industries to dismiss workers whose out-of-hours conduct impairs the safe performance of their duties, in the case of a flight attendant who called in sick during a layover after being hospitalised with a blood-alcohol reading of .205.
A leading workplace academic has called on legislators to consider a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation to impose a legal obligation to protect workers from sexual harassment, with breaches resulting in "substantial financial penalties".
