The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
Inghams unfairly sacked an Ethiopian-born worker for failing to weight-check multiple boxes of turkey leg, the FWC has held, noting its failure to provide a translator while "superficially" adhering to correct procedures might explain why it did not know he was following a supervisor's instructions.
A former United Petroleum business sales manager who claims she was sacked for filing a workers' compensation claim and complaining of bullying was in fact ousted for trying to poach its clients and set up a rival business, the fuel retailer alleges.
A FWC full bench has upheld a finding that a Toll health and safety representative was not entitled to be paid for attending the disciplinary meetings of another HSR, or grabbing a coffee after, and was after a "commendable" process rightfully sacked for falsifying his timesheets.
In an important out-of-hours conduct ruling, the FWC has reinstated a veteran train driver sacked after he told his employer that he faced possible imprisonment for blowing four times over the blood alcohol limit when police breath-tested him on the road.
The FWC has upheld a Qube subsidiary's sacking of a truck driver who blamed a positive blood alcohol reading on sucking on three-quarters of a 10-pack of Anticol cough lozenges to counter a dry throat.
FWC Deputy President Gerard Boyce has again run afoul of a tribunal bench, which has reminded him that conduct months after a dismissal cannot be considered when deciding whether an employer has a valid reason.
The FWC has refused to permit the Commonwealth Bank to bring in external lawyers to help it defend an unrepresented worker's unfair dismissal claim, despite the bank claiming its team of eight in-house employment solicitors are either unavailable or lacking recent experience.
After a forensic journey through an office's coffee habits, the FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker who used her employer's café account for clients to finance her caffeine habit.
Victoria Police has lost its bid to sack an officer for "disgraceful conduct" in allegedly exposing himself to a day spa therapist while getting his groin waxed, the State's Court of Appeal this month holding its review board rightly set the dismissal decision aside.
