A five-member bench of the Federal Court has ruled that a company was entitled to summarily dismiss an executive employee for serious misconduct that destroyed the relationship of trust between them, even though it had moved earlier to terminate his employment on six months' notice.
Employers in safety-critical industries might be entitled to enforce zero tolerance policies because there is no scientific test for impairment arising from cannabis use, a Fair Work Commission full bench has suggested.
A Qantas pilot who sexually harassed a female crew member while heavily intoxicated during an international stopover was responsible for his own actions and had suffered "a catastrophic fall from grace", the Fair Work Commission has ruled in rejecting his unfair dismissal claim.
In separate out-of-time rulings, the Fair Work Commission has rejected a sacked employee's challenge to when his dismissal took effect, but given another employee the benefit of the doubt on the "unreliability" of the tribunal's e-filing system.
A company had a valid reason for sacking its sales manager, including the post-employment discovery of pornographic images on his mobile phone, but "substantial" procedural deficiencies made the dismissal unfair, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A power plant operator who resigned to protect his termination entitlements after failing a workplace drug test was not constructively dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The dismissal of an employee for groping a bartender while staying at a hotel paid for by his employer was not unfair, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A sales assistant summarily dismissed for alleged theft has been awarded nearly $30,000 after the Fair Work Commission found no justification for her employer's "inexcusable" behaviour in sacking her and reporting her to the police.
A state government that lost confidence in its mining warden did not breach his employment contract when it removed him from office, nor did it contravene trade practices laws when it originally offered him the role, a court has ruled.
