An AGL worker who refused to provide proof of being vaccinated against COVID-19 has won a time extension to contest her dismissal after the FWC accepted her application was delayed when the Commission redirected its mail from Perth to Melbourne.
A FWC member has sought to emphasise that jabs are a matter of choice for employees, rather than a "mandate" imposed by employers, as a tide of COVID-19 vaccination-related unfair dismissal cases work their way through the tribunal.
The FWC in upholding the sacking of an unvaccinated KFC worker has found it "regrettable" HR sent auto-generated letters that led her to believe she was dismissed for abandoning her job.
In a significant decision clarifying when the FWC can deal with unlawful dismissal matters, a four-member bench has upheld a finding that a bookstore worker alleging discrimination after being sacked for refusing to wear a mask needed to prosecute her case in court.
An aged care provider must compensate a caterer after providing insufficient warning that failing to wear masks correctly could lead to summary dismissal, the FWC has found.
An unvaccinated hospital worker's decision to covertly record her summary sacking via Zoom added to the list of reasons why it should be upheld, the FWC has found.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a risk and compliance manager who refused to meet a vaccination deadline, dismissing her request for a risk assessment as irrelevant in the context of approved COVID-19 vaccines and public health orders.
The FWC has held that an aged care employer acted "prematurely" in dismissing an unvaccinated employee barred by state health orders from attending the workplace, finding no reason why he could not have continued to work from home as he had done for almost two years.
In what looms as the country's most sophisticated legal challenge to compulsory workplace vaccinations to date, South Australia's Supreme Court will tomorrow begin hearing a case featuring a frozen-out player from the Australian Football League's elite women's competition, a respected vaccine developer and a former federal court judge.
In a thinly-veiled shot at a tribunal colleague who used her position to criticise vaccine mandates, a senior FWC member has emphasised that it is not for the Commission to undermine the law by entertaining parties' "alternative policy preferences".
