An academic has welcomed a significant FWC full bench finding that a worker's refusal to participate in fingerprint scanning did not justify his dismissal and warns that many employers lack awareness of their legal obligations and the potential consequences of biometric technology.
High Court rebuffs "two longs" special leave bid; Relativity "decompression" proposal needs to go back to drawing board, say retailers; and Women's pay outpacing men's in recent wage slowdown, says report.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a Telstra business centre's IT technician accused of supplying drugs, accessing p-rnography, sending the director's confidential documents outside the company and remotely locking the entire workplace out of the network during an investigation into his conduct.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a 63-year-old male employee who sent text messages calling a 37-year-old male colleague his "bitch" and "toy boy" and threatened to "molest" him and squeeze his testicles until it made him cry.
There is "no place for bawdy offensive alpha-male behaviour in the workplace", the FWC has found, in upholding the dismissal of a male worker for asking a female colleague for a kiss and telling another co-worker that he wanted to "f-ck" his sister.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a warehouse worker who repeatedly breached his employer's policies on smoking, eating and drinking in the workplace.
The FWC has told an employer that it must accept responsibility for a "suboptimal" workplace culture that it could have reset before sacking two senior wharf workers who verbally abused a female colleague, but it upheld their dismissals for behaviour that "crossed the line".
A full bench has allowed an employee to challenge his dismissal for refusing to use his employer's fingerprint scanning technology that monitored attendance and tracked shifts, finding the case raises "important, novel and emerging issues".
A council's imposition of a seven-month "leave blackout" period in a quest for greater efficiencies has run foul of the FWC, the tribunal finding its failure to consult workers over the policy breached best practice and notification provisions in its agreement.
A company that withdrew an offer of employment when it discovered the potential employee's criminal record has paid her $2500 compensation and revised its global recruitment and HR practices, after the AHRC found it discriminated against her.
