Legal page 311 of 570

An FWC full bench has cleared the way for a commissioner to redetermine an employer's objections that a worker allegedly sacked when a stranger handed her an unmarked envelope at her home did not qualify for unfair dismissal protection because it should be deemed a small business.

A wholefood store that summarily dismissed a chef after a three-day absence for cancer treatment has failed to establish that he abandoned his employment, the FWC slamming its "extraordinarily heartless disregard".

In a penalty decision ordering the local arm of a global conglomerate to pay a further $20,000 to a supervisor unlawfully sacked by an HR manager within her probationary period, a court has cited the company's failure to find out more about the contravening conduct and whether it needed to minimise the risk of it reoccurring.

A former TWU official has lost a bitter dispute with the union over his dismissal in 2014, which he claimed was motivated by his absence from work due to a back injury.

The FWC will reconsider a mining company's bid to terminate an eight-year-old agreement covering no workers, a full bench finding a senior member gave it no opportunity to address his concern that it would not be in the public interest prior to talks with the CFMMEU.

The FWC has stymied a company director's unfair dismissal claim for a second time, after a fresh hearing affirmed his car allowance and other benefits put his earnings beyond the high income threshold.

A public servant who claims her transfer to the HR department constituted bullying and retaliation for whistleblowing has failed to convince the FWC to issue interim orders removing the financial security authority's chief people officer as her supervisor and preventing disciplinary action.

The FWC has labelled a "fishing expedition" an attempt by the United Firefighters' Union to access a vast array of documents from the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, in an alleged dispute over budget cuts the union claims will negatively impact its members.

The FWC has allowed an employee to file an unfair dismissal claim 33 days late, on the grounds that he had been hospitalised due to a suicide attempt four days after his sacking.

The Commonwealth Bank has denied bullying and retrenching a former general manager for revealing a scheme allowing colleagues to artificially boost bonuses, claiming also that his actions did not qualify for whistleblower protections and that he cannot pursue his claim under the terms of his deed of release.