The FWC has rejected a "things are different on a mining site" defence from a Fortescue Metals Group worker dismissed for holding a piece of broken glass to the throat of a colleague.
A company that dismissed a rigger for working unsafely at height and then allegedly ignoring a supervisor’s instruction to work differently has been ordered to pay him $9000 compensation, after failing to prove he received sufficiently clear directions.
Employers are likely to rely more heavily on zero tolerance drug and alcohol policies to discipline or dismiss employees, even when there is no evidence of impairment, after an important full Federal Court ruling yesterday.
In a decision that considers the relevance to his employment of a public servant's conduct outside working hours, a Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that the ATO had a valid reason to dismiss him because his incarceration meant he couldn't carry out his role.
A five-member bench of the Federal Court has ruled that a company was entitled to summarily dismiss an executive employee for serious misconduct that destroyed the relationship of trust between them, even though it had moved earlier to terminate his employment on six months' notice.
Employers in safety-critical industries might be entitled to enforce zero tolerance policies because there is no scientific test for impairment arising from cannabis use, a Fair Work Commission full bench has suggested.
A Qantas pilot who sexually harassed a female crew member while heavily intoxicated during an international stopover was responsible for his own actions and had suffered "a catastrophic fall from grace", the Fair Work Commission has ruled in rejecting his unfair dismissal claim.
A company had a valid reason for sacking its sales manager, including the post-employment discovery of pornographic images on his mobile phone, but "substantial" procedural deficiencies made the dismissal unfair, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The dismissal of an employee for groping a bartender while staying at a hotel paid for by his employer was not unfair, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
