In a thinly-veiled shot at a tribunal colleague who used her position to criticise vaccine mandates, a senior FWC member has emphasised that it is not for the Commission to undermine the law by entertaining parties' "alternative policy preferences".
The FWC has given an energy company until tomorrow to reinstate a Queensland-based FIFO worker who proved unable to return to WA in time for his roster at the Montara offshore oilfield during the McGowan Government's rapidly-changing COVID-19 restrictions.
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.
A four-member FWC full bench has overturned the reinstatement of a long-serving train driver sacked after he divulged he faced criminal charges for high-range drink driving, ruling that a presidential member failed to properly consider the connection between his out-of-hours conduct and his safety-critical job.
The FWC has despite claims of innocence upheld the sacking of an experienced school crossing supervisor who asked to touch an after-school program worker's hair before making "s-xually demeaning" comments.
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.
