The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.
The FWC has described a kennel hand's dismissal as so unfair "even the dogs in the street know" it, putting the labradoodle breeders on notice to take better care of their puppies than they do of the humans they employ.
In an instructive decision on the treatment of post-dismissal medical evidence, an FWC full bench has thrown out the appeal of a prison officer declared fit after being sacked on medical grounds, while again taking a swipe at his union's handling of the matter.
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.
Unilever has successfully challenged a requirement to count employees' prior periods of casual and seasonal work when calculating length of service for redundancy payouts, an FWC full bench calling into question a landmark 2016 majority finding that casual work should be included.
A company that relied on an FWC online calculator to notify workers of a ballot has had the resulting agreement thrown out for failing to provide the statutory seven-day access period, prompting a senior Commission member to lament his inability to "overcome what is clearly a procedural failure".
A state IR commissioner has recused himself from hearing a high-profile adverse action case after admitting he shouldn't have perused material from the state's anti-corruption body that contradicted other evidence, before he considered admitting it.
An FWC full bench has quashed a finding that BHP Coal should have kept paying or considered alternative duties for a mineworker while his driving licence was suspended, saying it would be tantamount to requiring an employer to excuse from duties but pay workers who turned up drunk.
A company director has been found personally liable for her company's adverse action when a visa worker was threatened with the sack for speaking to an FWO inspector.
In a rare "assumed disability" discrimination case that has exposed legislative shortcomings, a tribunal has awarded $20,000 to a public servant forced to take sick leave over concerns about her enthusiasm for conspiracy theories.
