A landmark contempt finding and accompanying jail sentence hailed as proof of the FWO's commitment to justice has been overturned by a full Federal Court that found the ruling judge's "open" hostility to the underpaying employer compromised his ability to consider the evidence.
The AFP did not discriminate against a police officer seeking to have 32 weeks of half-pay maternity leave count towards her service, the Federal Court finding the relevant agreement's intention was only to cover full-pay periods.
The long-serving former chief executive of a Queensland charity is more than $30,000 out of pocket after securing a minor win as part of his wrongful termination case but being labelled "dishonest" in his employer's successful cross-claim.
An employee criticised as being ungrateful about securing a restaurant job despite her disability has won $12,500 in compensation for the hurt and humiliation she experienced during her dismissal after 12 weeks.
In a decision vindicating the FWO's resistance to the grouping of multiple contraventions for the purpose of setting penalties, the workplace watchdog has won a fivefold increase in fines imposed on an underpaying company director.
A senior FWC member in upholding a Virgin Australia ground crew worker's dismissal over pilfered cigarettes has noted that "one's fate" is often sealed by attempted cover-ups rather than the actual misconduct, further observing that the former employee did himself no favours when posting on social media that the airline's HR partner was a "despicable human being".
The Federal Court has found a sexually harassed worker has a reasonable chance of successfully challenging orders clearing a Boral subsidiary of vicarious liability, on the basis that the judgment is "unsafe" due to a six-year delay.
A multinational company has won a rare stay on orders that it pay 173 former detention centre workers more than $130,000 in unpaid allowances, after the Federal Court found the union pushing their case had no record of their whereabouts.
A multinational "people flow" company can require a tradesperson with severe claustrophobia to transfer from an escalator repair team to an elevator repair team, the FWC has found, while cautioning that its approach to accommodating his condition would be considered if he returned with an unfair dismissal claim.
A long-serving industrial tribunal member has taken aim at an employer's claim that summarily sacking a worker by text was a "generational thing", describing the method as "unconscionably undignified" while insisting that dismissals should always be conducted face-to-face.
