A Qantas pilot, who blamed a spiked drink for his groping of a female flight crew member during a Santiago lay-over, has had his unfair dismissal claim rejected by an FWC full bench for the second time.
Positive drug test justifies sacking; THC-positive worker to get his day in tribunal; Bench upholds BHP Coal's sacking of worker for safety breach; Genuine redundancy after Amex outsources work to India; and Threats no way to negotiate with employer.
The summary dismissal of a worker who returned a positive drug result lacked procedural fairness but this was mitigated by the employer's need to ensure a safe workplace, the FWC has ruled.
An FWC full bench has overturned a "counter-intuitive" decision to compensate a worker dismissed for his blatant disregard of his employer's drug and alcohol and OHS policies.
A ban on smoking in the workplace has survived a union challenge after the Fair Work Commission found the policy reasonable because the employer had taken steps to consult with employees and offered support to help them quit.
A worker with a "dismissive" attitude to OHS who breached his employer's zero alcohol tolerance policy has been compensated because a previous warning was too severe.
A welder's claims that he was "fine" after bingeing on 20 cans of full-strength beer over 12 hours on Australia Day before facing a random breath test at work has failed to impress FWC member Danny Cloghan, who says it "would be greeted with that very Australian saying relating to animal manure".
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
