The FWC has commended a young solicitor's "candour" in admitting to having fumbled the unfair dismissal application of an unvaccinated foster care worker told her temporary WFH arrangement could not be sustained.
A tribunal member has reinstated six sacked Qube Ports waterfront shift managers and expressed alarm at a senior manager's "bizarre" and "ridiculous" proposal that three of them sign an unsighted document before it divulged its plan to maintain operations during a strike.
The FWC has upheld the flawed sacking of a health and safety manager after phone records revealed she sent an "extraordinary and unacceptable" amount of text messages at work while overseeing her growing side business.
The FWC has upheld, despite some procedural failings, the ACTU's dismissal of a call centre employee over Facebook posts that "cheered on" an anti-vaccine mandate campaign, applauded aggression against police, mocked domestic violence, disparaged black people and vilified transgender people.
A worker who unsuccessfully sought to take long service leave after Bulla Dairy Foods rejected medical exemption evidence from a since-suspended doctor has failed to establish it unfairly sacked him for breaching a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
A worker made redundant after complaining about performing tasks outside his role description and its effect on his work-life balance has won an adverse action case in a federal court.
In a significant ruling on dismissals deemed harsh by the FWC, a full bench has endorsed the "unorthodox" approach taken by a member who ordered the reinstatement of a forklift driver who breached an employer's "no mobile phones" policy.
An employer unfairly sacked a labourer for running over a pet galah, the FWC has held, rejecting claims that he breached a formal directive not to operate vehicles when Crackers was on the ground.
The FWC has distinguished between "regular" industrial protests and those likely to attract "public outrage" during pandemic restrictions in finding a crane company entitled to sack an operator who attended a violent anti-vax rally outside CFMMEU offices in Melbourne.
A prison guard who nodded off during shifts has won his job back after a tribunal found proper account had not been taken of his previously undiagnosed sleep apnea and that his dismissal was affected by a "procedural muddle" featuring two decision-makers reaching different conclusions.