A worker dismissed two days before flying overseas only to discover on arrival that her mother was dying of cancer has had her late unfair dismissal application accepted, the FWC finding it would have been "shockingly callous" to require detailed medical records sought by her former employer.
Rotary International's "egregious" dismissal of a Sydney-based manager who initiated an adverse action claim has earned it a $50,000 fine from a judge who singled out the organisation's US-based No.2 for her role in a breach that "struck at the heart" of Australian workplace laws.
An FWC full bench has allowed a casual worker to claim unfair dismissal after finding a senior tribunal member wrongly focussed on her irregular "pattern" of days and hours in holding she had not met the minimum employment period.
In a decision closely examining the FWC's power to award costs, a reinstated worker who was the beneficiary of an earlier ruling has on rehearing failed to persuade the Commission that her employer either unreasonably defended the unfairness of its actions or ignored its poor prospects of success.
Service station owners who required a visa-dependent employee to hand over his tax refund and cover the cost of drive-offs have been ordered to compensate the former console operator and his fellow-worker wife more than $50,000 after a court found them accessorily liable for underpayments.
An EPA worker believed to have contracted Legionnaires' disease by walking past Sydney Town Hall during an outbreak has won reinstatement after establishing that it caused him to suffer major depression that contributed to his poor work performance.
No "take two" after worker's safety breaches; $40K for full-time worker told he had "completed" his role; and Compensation for "forgetful" 66-year-old driver.
The FWC has accepted an unlawful dismissal claimant's contention that the tribunal's "slow processing" of her $73.20 filing fee explained a two-minute delay in online lodgement.
In a case clarifying when an employee can claim they signed a deed of release under 'duress', the FWC has thrown out a director's unfair dismissal matter after finding he had ample opportunity to test his assumption that he would not be paid his entitlements if he did not put pen to paper.
The FWC has found that it "reflects poorly indeed" on a printing company if it did not investigate sexual harassment complaints an unfairly dismissed female employee made to HR, while it has also referred the employer's "contemptuous" failure to comply with an order to attend the Commission to the tribunal's general manager for further action.