A geoscientist made redundant after almost two decades with the same company has been given a second chance to argue he was unfairly dismissed after a full bench found his former employer potentially led a Commission member into error when asserting there were no alternative positions available.
In an FWC case heavily reliant on circumstantial evidence, a former soldier with an unblemished work record has had his dismissal for stealing company property upheld after the tribunal heard of airport mix-ups on a remote island, alleged union skullduggery, an upset stomach – and a dead bat.
A court has thrown out an aggrieved former employee's bullying case, finding he could not substantiate claims of a "complex conspiracy" that involved a flatulent supervisor.
The FWC has poked holes in the record-keeping and training practices of an employer and its HR manager that summarily dismissed a long-serving employee for breaching its "zero tolerance" mobile phone policy without making sure he was aware of it.
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.
In a rare case turning on an employee's loss of trust in his employer rather than the other way around, the FWC has stepped back from ordering the reinstatement of a worker found to have been unfairly dismissed, despite describing it as the most "compelling" remedy.
In the wake of the public spotlight on the Qantas "inclusive language" guidelines, one of its baggage handlers has failed to convince the FWC that tearing a colleague's shirt, shoving him against a locker and telling him to f-ck off back to his country were not sackable offences but rather a bit of "argy bargy" between friends, consistent with the workplace culture.
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".
The FWC has observed it is "not necessary" to consider whether representation creates unfairness between parties, as a French company was granted permission to engage a lawyer to defend a self-represented employee's unfair dismissal claim.
The Flight Attendants Association national divisional council has appointed Shane Scanlon as secretary, while the union presses jurisdictional objections against unfair dismissal claims brought by its former leader Andrew Staniforth and member support manager Carolyn Summers.
