The FWC has castigated an employer for its "unconscionable" and "intimidatory" written notice suggesting that a casual duty manager committed theft and fraud when she failed to pay for a drink or offer an explanation for missing stock, while it has also lambasted its representative, Clubs NSW, for its "unprofessional" conduct in characterising her conduct as criminal.
Maurice Blackburn's head of employment and industrial law, Josh Bornstein, says damages for discrimination and harassment "remain persistently low" but he expects an upwards trajectory as their impact has been "laid bare" and expectations are now clearer.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a kitchen hand who turned up intoxicated in his own time to prepare for his next shift, but has berated the employer over its "failure to exercise basic decency" when leaving him to find his own way home.
The 12-day gap between a concreter's two-day "trial" and starting full-time work did not count as "continuous" employment, leaving him just shy of the statutory minimum necessary to challenge his dismissal, the FWC has found.
A court has thrown out claims by a HR consultancy's former chief executive that she experienced relentless bullying, unilateral pay deductions and an excessive workload before her unlawful sacking in 2020 for allegedly misusing a corporate credit card.
Australia’s largest family-owned office supplies company unfairly sacked an account manager when it claimed she repudiated her contract by refusing to get a COVID-19 jab, the FWC has found.
A court has refused to grant a self-represented on-hire worker a second extension of time to pursue his "confusing" adverse action case, finding too many gaps in his explanation for a 10-week delay during which he badgered the FWC to arbitrate the matter and travelled overseas.
The Nobel Prize for economic sciences has been awarded to a Harvard professor who has a penchant for historical detective work, digging into gender differences in labour markets that stretch back to the eighteenth century.
A full Federal Court has overturned orders for a big company to compensate a former employee for a "sham" redundancy, finding a judge wrongly ruled on the necessity of a business restructure.
The FWC has reinstated a worker dismissed for allegedly trying to extend her annual leave by taking sick leave, which the employer viewed as a "dishonest" attempt to mislead it.
