The NSW IRC has considered the dividing line between misconduct and performance issues in cutting short the demotion of an assistant principal accused of hugging and professing her love for students, giving gifts and laughing when one of them threw paint over a colleague.
A CommSec manager sacked for breaching 'Banking 101' procedures has been denied a second hearing of her unfair dismissal claim on appeal grounds declared "trivial and spurious" by an FWC full bench.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a Sydney Harbour ferry master who fell asleep while in control of his vessel after taking an over-the-counter cough mixture.
A gym must compensate a martial arts instructor for taking the "unnecessarily harsh" step of summarily sacking him, despite the FWC finding it within its rights to give him his marching orders for constantly using his phone while supervising classes.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of an Energy Australia employee who told one colleague she could not get pregnant due to her sexuality and suggested to another that he was related to Deepak Chopra because of his Indian descent.
The Federal Court has frozen the assets of two former Spotlight Pty Ltd employees who allegedly took millions of dollars in secret commissions from a supplier.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a BHP Coal mineworker who punched a supervisor in the face and asked a colleague if she had "fake t-ts" at a company Christmas party, but has reinstated another employee dismissed for serious misconduct at the same event.
The FWC has admonished a BHP subsidiary for taking a "haphazard" approach to its disciplinary guidelines, finding it had a valid reason to sack a mineworker for her "deviant" conduct when she put a s-x toy in a colleague's carry-on baggage, but procedural failings made it unfair.
A bus driver who in breach of a strict no-phone policy took "goodnight" calls from his children while preparing to leave the depot was not forced to resign, the FWC has found.
The FWC has refused to issue an interim anti-bullying order against an employer that excluded a cleaner from a workplace Christmas celebration and refused to give her leave on Australia Day, but has criticised its "poor and clumsy" handling of the worker's complaints.