Unfair dismissal/termination of employment page 128 of 131

BHP Coal was entitled to direct a boilermaker to attend an appointment with a company-nominated physician to determine whether he was fit to return to work, and to then terminate his employment when he refused to go, a Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled.

An injured Qantas baggage handler who sought a review under state workers compensation law of a rehabilitation plan that would have transferred him to a new employer was not prevented by the Fair Work Act's "multiple actions" provisions from pursuing a federal unfair dismissal claim, a full bench of the FWC has ruled.

An accounting firm dismissed a client manager because of serious misconduct rather than the "several and various exercises of his workplace rights" in the lead-up to his dismissal, the Federal Circuit Court has found.

Pacific National was justified in sacking a long-serving train driver who was 120 seconds away from colliding with another train, after failing to see and respond to two signals, the Fair Work Commission has found.

The Federal Court has refused to reinstate a sales consultant pending the hearing of his wrongful dismissal claim, finding that his relationship with his former employer had broken down and that damages would be an adequate remedy if he ended up winning his case.

A senior FWC member has strongly endorsed legal representation of parties in hearings, saying that with the rise of self-representation, the involvement of legal practitioners is "more often than not, a welcome relief".

The Fair Work Commission has upheld the RSPCA's dismissal of an executive manager for leaking to the media, providing confidential documents to his union and undermining his chief executive, describing his conduct as "reprehensible" and "duplicitous".

A Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that it was not unreasonable for a global industrial software company to retrench an Australian technical project manager with one day's notice instead of redeploying him to an overseas position, overturning a deputy president's decision that his dismissal was unfair.

A NSW public servant who admitted touching the breasts of five women during a 2012 Christmas party has won his job back after the NSW IRC found he was treated more harshly than a senior manager who was only demoted.

Undischarged bankrupts will be able to pursue the full range of unfair dismissal remedies under the Fair Work Act as long as they have been declared insolvent before lodging their claims, a Fair Work Commission full bench confirmed yesterday in a ruling that resolves conflicting single-member decisions on the issue.