Employers needn't comply with rigid performance management processes when dismissing poorly-performing employees, as long as they can point to conscious and concerted efforts to address the worker's perceived shortcomings, the FWC has found.
The FWC has thrown out an employer's argument that a "wide view" of the Fair Work Act allowed it to make four safety officers working on the Gorgon LNG project redundant when they refused to accept a 13% pay cut.
The FWC has confirmed that 117 employees made redundant by a South Australian car manufacturing company will receive payments in lieu of notice as part of a redundancy package agreed to in their enterprise agreement.
The FWC has called on employers to introduce a greater range of disciplinary options like fines and unpaid suspensions into agreements to avoid "inappropriately lenient or inappropriately harsh" responses to misconduct that are problematic for all parties concerned.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a university employee who allegedly fabricated a medical certificate by inserting a "curious" phrase from another certificate to prove she was unfit for work.
A worker directed to take unpaid leave for mental health treatment has had his unfair dismissal claim rejected after falling "marginally" short of the FWC's jurisdictional prerequisite of a minimum six months' continuous service.
The FWC has given the go-ahead for the regional director of a multibillion dollar real estate business to pursue his unfair dismissal claim despite earning well above the income cap, because his duties established he was in fact an award-covered sales representative.
The FWC has extended time for an employee who claimed "force majeure" and an "Act of God" after Cyclone Debbie and representative error delayed lodgement of her unfair dismissal application.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of an Australian Federal Police officer who stalked and intimidated his ex-partner when he left "used" condoms in her front yard and made offensive remarks on her Facebook page.