In a closely-watched dismissal case contemplating how much weight should be attached to mitigating factors, an FWC majority full bench has reinstated a worker sacked for his foul abuse and threats to colleagues via text messages and phone calls while drunk.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a personal assistant who became entangled in a company power play, finding that her employer's belief that she lied to cover a director's tardiness satisfied the requirements of the small business code.
Confusing evidence from Rio Tinto experts might have contributed to a senior FWC member incorrectly assessing the number of safety breaches committed by a dismissed mechanic, a Commission full bench has found.
The Fair Work Commission has sought to better delineate the law around so-called constructive dismissals, in a case in which it lambasted a multinational company's HR department for overseeing a process it likened to "entrapment".
An FWC full bench majority has refused to accept that an employer's flawed investigation process, coupled with uncharacteristic behaviour purportedly sparked by mixing medication and alcohol, excused a coal miner sacked over profanity-laced threats to co-workers.
An Australia Post employee has failed in a Federal Court bid to win reinstatement after his summary dismissal for acting as a paid industrial advocate for his colleagues.
An FWC full bench led by President Iain Ross has sent a powerful signal to members to back their own judgement in inherent requirements cases where there is conflicting medical evidence, describing a previous full bench decision ceding the final say to employers as "plainly wrong".
An FWC full bench has quashed an interlocutory decision allowing an employer to engage lawyers, finding it incumbent on the tribunal to give a self-represented employee an opportunity to weigh in on the matter.
A worker will have another shot at seeking a 45-day extension to file his general protections claim after an FWC full bench found he was wrongly refused on the basis that he needed a credible explanation for the entire length of the delay.
An FWC full bench has made a rare security of costs order against a social worker it calculated has "little prospect" of being granted permission to appeal a rejected unfair dismissal claim.
