The FWC has called on employers to introduce a greater range of disciplinary options like fines and unpaid suspensions into agreements to avoid "inappropriately lenient or inappropriately harsh" responses to misconduct that are problematic for all parties concerned.
A tribunal has upheld the sacking of a general manager's personal assistant for storing more than 1200 inappropriate and pornographic emails in a "funny emails" folder, but has compensated her because it was harsh.
The FWC has awarded $6,000 compensation to a travelling salesperson who was unfairly dismissed for making a "crude" and "immature" Facebook post suggesting a woman provided s-xual favours to her boss to win a promotion.
Sacking a transit officer for "excessive force" when he used capsicum spray on a threatening 12-year-old boy was unfair because the employer should have considered demoting him instead, a tribunal has found.
The FWC has reinstated a Metro Trains Melbourne station officer after finding no justification for her sacking over fraudulent transactions on the Myki smartcard ticketing system.
The FWC has found it was harsh to dismiss a nurse who tagged two colleagues to a s-xually explicit Facebook video and said they were "slamming" each other, set-up a mock masturbation scene on a workmate's desk and referred to a senior manager in crude derogatory terms.
The FWC has ruled that a cabin crew supervisor, who failed to convince the tribunal last year that his sacking for alleged sexual harassment was unfair, must now pay costs for continuing to pursue his claim after he rejected a $20,000 settlement offer.
The FWC has found that an employer was justified in seeking to protect its reputation by sacking a "dishonest" employee who told a client she had sent an important document when no trace of the email could ever be found.