A senior FWC member has declined to step aside from hearing a resuscitated case involving the Commission's own email fail, covert recordings, a threat to kill and an alleged extortion attempt.
The FWC has criticised the lawyers of an unfair dismissal applicant and his former employer for "point scoring" conduct falling foul of professional conduct rules, while rejecting the latter's costs bid and claim it did not sack the worker despite announcing his redundancy.
An academic's $2 million adverse action case against a university's HR department has been transferred to the Federal Court, a judge observing that its outcome has "significant" implications for the tertiary sector's ability to scrap tenured positions funded by endowments.
A digital marketer has been cleared to pursue her adverse action claim after the FWC dismissed an employer's contention that her billed hours exceeded those reasonably expected of a "millennial with quick reflexes".
A FWC member has declined to recuse herself from hearing the unfair dismissal claim of a public servant accused of staging a workplace fall, rejecting accusations she prejudged the worker as guilty and aggressively pushed her to accept a settlement.
A decision by NSW Trains to discipline a manager by shaving almost 10% off his annual pay constituted a dismissal even though he remains in the job and such action is allowed by its agreement and governing regulations, the FWC has held.
The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
The FWC has ordered indemnity costs against a financial advisor held to have pursued a "meritless" unfair dismissal application nine months after resigning and a vexatious appeal because he believed his former employer was backing out of a separation deal.
A full Federal Court has quashed a software company's $5.2 million general protections payout and ordered a retrial after finding that the judge in awarding record compensation to the former Victorian state manager failed to provide adequate reasons in his 350-page decision.
In a decision stressing the importance of distinguishing between internships, work experience and clerkships at law firms, a FWC senior member has rejected a recent graduate's unfair dismissal claim on the basis he was not an employee.