A full Federal Court has overturned orders for a big company to compensate a former employee for a "sham" redundancy, finding a judge wrongly ruled on the necessity of a business restructure.
An "openly gay" head chef sacked for allegedly molesting female co-workers has won $16,000 compensation, after the FWC found it "more than coincidental" that his employer decided that s-xual harassment provided a valid reason for summary dismissal before it emailed employees a survey full of loaded questions.
An accountant has won a rare interim anti-bullying order after the FWC agreed her employer "inappropriately" bypassed her lawyers by directly emailing a request that she attend a disciplinary meeting the following day.
The income and compensation caps for unfair dismissal claims are set to increase on Saturday, along with filing fees for a range of other applications.
A judge has rejected a business owner's claim of unlawful sacking because he repeatedly accused his co-owner brother of bullying and conflicts of interest, finding their "poisonous" relationship unrelated to his dismissal for ignoring a direction to stay away from the office while under investigation for allegedly harassing employees.
The AFP has won the right to be represented by an external lawyer in a "complex" anti-bullying case involving at least 18 witnesses to be heard by the FWC in a fortnight.
A female engineer suing BHP in an adverse action case claims a male colleague told her it was a compliment when he "volunteered" her to take notes at a meeting.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker for telling a colleague during an argument that "I'll f-ck you in the a-se", finding that the choice of words went "far beyond" simply swearing in the workplace and constituted s-xual harassment.
A senior FWC member accused of trying to intimidate a company director during conciliation, descending into the arena of advocacy and stating that he engaged in sexual harassment has refused to recuse herself from hearing an anti-bullying claim against him.
The FWC has slapped anti-bullying orders on a gated community's body corporate and its treasurer who taunted on-site caretakers about their claim of "living in misery" over the Christmas period because of unpaid invoices.
