In a penalty decision ordering the local arm of a global conglomerate to pay a further $20,000 to a supervisor unlawfully sacked by an HR manager within her probationary period, a court has cited the company's failure to find out more about the contravening conduct and whether it needed to minimise the risk of it reoccurring.
A former TWU official has lost a bitter dispute with the union over his dismissal in 2014, which he claimed was motivated by his absence from work due to a back injury.
The FWC has stymied a company director's unfair dismissal claim for a second time, after a fresh hearing affirmed his car allowance and other benefits put his earnings beyond the high income threshold.
The FWC has allowed an employee to file an unfair dismissal claim 33 days late, on the grounds that he had been hospitalised due to a suicide attempt four days after his sacking.
The Commonwealth Bank has denied bullying and retrenching a former general manager for revealing a scheme allowing colleagues to artificially boost bonuses, claiming also that his actions did not qualify for whistleblower protections and that he cannot pursue his claim under the terms of his deed of release.
A University of Sydney lecturer sacked after superimposing a swastika on an Israeli flag in teaching materials and social media posts is relying on political opinion protections in the Fair Work Act and academic freedom clauses, claiming he was really dismissed for challenging his treatment.
The FWC has rejected an employer's claim it did not summarily dismiss an apprentice by text, describing a later email in which the teenager was told "we are holding your position open" as a "retroactive" attempt to characterise the worker as having quit.
An employer who failed to record a worker's serial misconduct, provide a written warning or give him an opportunity to respond nevertheless did not deny him a fair go when forcing him to resign following a brief lunch room meeting, the FWC has found.
The FWC has reproached a childcare provider for failing to inform a worker that her past experience in a violent relationship was a "relevant" factor in its decision to dismiss her after she challenged a co-worker to a fight.
The FWC has rebuked a lawyer for his "dilatory" approach to filing a general protections claim, ultimately granting his client a time extension because of the unusual degree of stress and anxiety he suffered as a consequence of his dismissal.
