The FWC has cleared the way for a worker accused of "disruptive menace" and assaulting the chief executive to pursue a general protections claim against his former employer, holding it could not delegate to police the task of telling him he had been sacked.
A nurse who is contesting her sacking for allegedly donating her employer's property to a charity has won an extension of time due to representative error, after her solicitor filed her unfair dismissal application five hours after the 21-day deadline.
In a significant decision regarding the statutory meaning of "dismissed", a five-member FWC bench majority has ruled that an employer did not sack a worker when it shaved almost 10% off his annual pay for disciplinary reasons.
A FWC member has applied the "well known 'duck principle'" in holding that a tyre recycling company suspected of phoenixing unfairly sacked a worker who complained about unpaid superannuation, before threatening to kill a director.
Building on previous decisions taking a worker's mental health into account when allowing late unfair dismissal applications to proceed, the FWC has granted a time extension to a seed picker ensnared in her partner's breakdown.
In an important ruling on the NSW IRC's jurisdictional powers, the High Court has found that a since-repealed provision did not prevent the State tribunal considering a police officer's unfair dismissal case that challenged his forced retirement on medical grounds.
In a decision underlining the responsibility of workers to keep their contact details up to date, a senior FWC member has refused an unvaccinated worker's bid for a one-day extension to challenge his sacking by email on the basis he did not get the message.
A business manager summarily sacked by her director husband soon after they separated has lost her bid to run an unfair dismissal case after her use of a new car to move interstate helped to nudge her over the high-income threshold.
The FWC has found a law firm's lack of competence and "grossly unprofessional" conduct primarily to blame for the late unfair dismissal claim of a worker who breached a vaccine mandate, but it has refused to grant a one-day extension due to her role in the delay.
The FWC has thrown out an unfair dismissal case brought by a law student sacked from a full-time job as a legal assistant for failing to get a COVID-19 jab, finding she did not complete the required minimum employment term after taking time off to sit exams.