The FWC has sent employers a clear reminder of the conditions and processes required to justify summary dismissal, with its reinstatement of a contractor's employee who admitted to vomiting at a major client's after-hours function but denied propositioning one of its managers.
The FWC has castigated an HR department for casting aside its "proper role" when it pursued incorrect allegations and facilitated the unfair dismissal by ambush of a manager it considered an "ongoing management problem".
In a rare case, two former operators of a Canberra massage parlour potentially face up to a year in jail for allegedly providing false or misleading evidence to the FWC.
A company has been forced to reinstate a long-serving senior executive it sacked more than three years ago following his stoush with an HR manager, while also facing a bill of more than $1 million in back pay, long service leave, penalties and compensation.
A Sydney-based Canadian paid a regular monthly untaxed figure in US dollars by a Calgary-headquartered company for which he agreed to act as an independent contractor has had his unfair dismissal claim upheld, with the FWC finding he was not genuinely retrenched.
A senior radio journalist sacked for referring to singer Michael Jackson's father as a "big, black b*stard" on air has been awarded more than $30,000 in compensation, after a senior FWC member found a recording of the exchange clearly showed it was not a racist slur.
A senior FWC member has held that an abusive "alt-right" employer unfairly sacked an apprentice for refusing to assist his pursuit of revenge against a former employee, describing the company managing director as having the most deplorable attitude to HR management she had ever encountered.
An HR manager's "unnecessary allegations" and "overreach" have contributed to a finding that although a drug and alcohol tester's failure to declare he was taking Nurofen Plus provided a valid reason for dismissal, his sacking was unfair.
The FWC has taken a Westpac investigator and HR manager to task over their "blatantly unfair" handling of allegations against a lending agent, ordering the bank to reinstate him despite his breach of its email policy.
