A supervisor's criticism of management in a social media group chat that "incit[ed] a negative and combative environment among the team", along with performance issues, provided a valid basis for dismissing her, the FWC has found.
In a decision assessing how long a valid reason remains "current", the FWC has overlooked serious procedural deficiencies to back a landscaping business's summary sacking of a gardener almost two months after he called a colleague a "fat exploiter of foreigners".
A massage business and its director must pay more than $2 million in fines and compensation after significantly short-changing temporary visa workers, subjecting them to a "cashback" scheme and threatening to kill their families if they blew the whistle.
A court has found a low-paid casual hairdresser's two-year restraint on poaching clients "void and unenforceable" because it is "significantly longer" than necessary to protect her former employer's legitimate business interests, taking into account the absence of compensation for the non-compete clause and the nature of client relationships.
The FWC has refused to further delay a sick legal secretary's unfair dismissal hearing after almost six years of adjournments, and will consider any further extension requests "vexatious".
An employer had insufficient evidence to support its sacking of a manager who consumed up to 15 standard drinks the day and evening before his 7am start, the FWC has ruled.
A bank manager has failed to establish that his employer lacked reasonable business grounds for refusing his request to work solely from home to aid his injured yoga instructor partner's recovery as she conducted 15 high-intensity lessons per week.
The FWC has reduced the redundancy entitlements of five former employees of online trading platform Bartercard after they refused new positions requiring them to work exclusively from home and to fork out the full cost of setting up an appropriate space.
In a decision warning that workplaces are "on notice" to meet far higher standards of behaviour, the FWC has thrown out the unfair dismissal claim of a veteran Alcoa worker held to have groped a female colleague.
Safework NSW is calling for employers to develop anti-violence policies and procedures to prevent or minimise workplace s-xual harassment and other forms of violence, following a court ordering Marist Youth Care to pay more than $400,000 in fines and costs after its workers experienced "s-xualised and aggressive behaviour".
