The FWC has taken a leading law firm to task over its protracted investigation of three TAFE employees accused of fraudulent, dishonest and corrupt behaviour, rejecting findings of misconduct that led to their dismissal and ordering their reinstatement.
A Clive Palmer-owned business must pay a worker almost $40,000 for dismissing him by email along with 125 other employees, claiming he failed to work his hours amid site-wide fraud, theft and dishonesty,, and then asking him to re-apply for his job 20 minutes later.
In a case highlighting the many tripwires involved in remote working arrangements, the FWC has upheld the sacking of a Bureau of Meteorology scientist who fell off the radar after an overseas holiday.
A senior FWC member has questioned whether paid IR agents should be more closely regulated after expressing dismay that a firm had no processes to identify an incorrectly entered date that led to late filing of a worker's unfair dismissal claim.
The FWC has waved through a former company director's late unfair dismissal claim after accepting evidence that the deadline fell on the same day as her treatment for a heart condition allegedly exacerbated by her ex-husband "vengefully terminating" her employment.
The FWC has reinstated a Sydney Trains worker who used cocaine while on leave, after lambasting the employer for not making it clear that it tests for use rather than impairment and for failing to take on board earlier criticism of its drug and alcohol policy.
Qube Ports must reinstate a stevedore who pranged a client's $70,000 Mercedes after an operations manager mistook her explanations as an attempt to excuse her behaviour or shift the blame.
An intellectual property firm fumbled an employee's summary dismissal when it switched from highlighting his deficient performance and conduct to "dishonesty" over time spent browsing the internet "for items of personal interest", the FWC has found.
In a full bench decision exploring what constitutes work-related conduct, essential services provider Ventia has failed to knock out the reinstatement of a firefighter who shared an Only Fans video and a meme showing three naked women in a "sickos" Facebook group of current and former colleagues.
The FWC has castigated an employer for its "unconscionable" and "intimidatory" written notice suggesting that a casual duty manager committed theft and fraud when she failed to pay for a drink or offer an explanation for missing stock, while it has also lambasted its representative, Clubs NSW, for its "unprofessional" conduct in characterising her conduct as criminal.
