Allowing a worker to switch from pursuing an unfair dismissal to a general protections claim after unsuccessful conciliation would allow him "two bites of the cherry", the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The Federal Circuit Court has hit a transport operator who sacked a driver for taking carer's leave and then terrorised him, his family and his union solicitor when he instituted legal proceedings with close to the maximum penalty for unlawful adverse action.
A court has found that a worker who was asked to look for alternative employment due to his heart condition was dismissed, rejecting his employer's argument that his job ended by "mutual agreement".
A court has found that a law firm acted quickly to investigate claims of harassment by one of its solicitors and was entitled to treat emails from her stating that the employment relationship had broken down as a resignation.
An accounting firm dismissed a client manager because of serious misconduct rather than the "several and various exercises of his workplace rights" in the lead-up to his dismissal, the Federal Circuit Court has found.
The Federal Court has ordered an Xstrata subsidiary to provide the CFMEU's mining division with documents that will enable it to decide whether to include the mining company in an adverse action claim by a delegate who was sidelined after raising safety concerns.
A Myer sales manager who did not disclose an anxiety condition to his employer or make any plan to seek workers compensation has failed to argue that these were the real reasons for his dismissal, rather than concerns with his performance.
Victoria's Office of Public Prosecutions has been ordered pay a $10,000 fine and to reinstate a solicitor it subjected to unlawful adverse action when it stood him down then dismissed him for misconduct that "arose wholly" from his anxiety and depression.
The Federal Court has temporarily reinstated a CFMEU delegate to his position at Anglo Coal's Dawson mine in Central Queensland pending the hearing of his adverse action claim, and warned the company that it will need to provide him with his usual work to comply with its order.
The need for employers to consider the individual circumstances of employees taking industrial action before they institute disciplinary action has been demonstrated in a FWC finding that a company unfairly dismissed a crane driver who belatedly joined an unlawful stop-work meeting.
