In a decision exploring when employers can be said to have repudiated employment contracts, the FWC has ruled that a multinational dismissed a worker when it "unilaterally" withdrew his company car without compensation following a collision with a kangaroo.
An employee claiming he was misled into accepting a settlement while suffering PTSD has unsuccessfully sought to back out of it, the FWC holding "buyer's remorse" is no reason to undo a properly made deal.
Deliveroo says it won't accept a FWC finding that a sacked rider was an employee entitled to protection from unfair dismissal or that it reflects how riders work in practice, but the TWU says the ruling puts Australia in line with other countries that recognise gig workers' rights.
The FWC has in finding a Deliveroo rider was an employee who must be reinstated criticised the platform for a "callous and perfunctory" dismissal "most notable for its absence of compassion".
A government agency has been ordered to reinstate a worker dismissed a year after it attributed a workplace vehicle collision to "human error", the FWC finding it had produced no further evidence to warrant the change of heart.
The FWC has reinstated a bacon worker, after holding it was not threatening to say she felt like knocking a colleague off her perch, while finding the employer contributed to their stress, denied her procedural fairness and had a tendency to exaggerate evidence.
In a decision highlighting both the perils of "naïve" social media use and the incongruities of the JobKeeper program, the FWC has declined to award compensation to a teenage casual swim instructor unfairly sacked for recommending a rival business on a community Facebook page.
An employer has convinced the FWC that a mineworker found to have been unfairly sacked over a safety failure should not be reinstated because it had lost trust and confidence in him.
The FWC has found the redundancy of a FIFO labour hire coal mineworker affected by COVID-19 travel restrictions not genuine, holding that Workpac failed to meet its consult obligations after BHP said it no longer needed him.
The FWC has criticised a company's "entirely unjust" process in sacking a long-serving mushroom picker for misplacing a knife, while noting her prior unblemished disciplinary record contrasted strangely with a swathe of warnings following a workplace injury.