FWC President Iain Ross has asked a full bench to review abandonment of employment clauses in six modern awards after a recent ruling that employers must take the "additional step" of ending the employment relationship when a worker walks off the job.
The FWC has accepted an employer's argument that the "paramount" importance it placed on OHS justified its sacking of a long-serving employee with an "unblemished history" who recorded more than twice the workplace blood alcohol limit after drinking four glasses of red wine the previous evening.
The FWC has rejected claims an Allianz manager was unfairly dismissed after threatening to touch a female colleague's vagina if she didn't stop talking during a taxi ride following a work social outing.
The FWC has found it was harsh to dismiss a nurse who tagged two colleagues to a s-xually explicit Facebook video and said they were "slamming" each other, set-up a mock masturbation scene on a workmate's desk and referred to a senior manager in crude derogatory terms.
A lie told by a veteran Qantas flight attendant sacked for stealing alcohol has again proven his undoing, with an FWC full bench yesterday quashing an unfair dismissal ruling that put him in line for more than $33,000 in compensation.
The FWC has upheld a disability support association's dismissal of a carer whose psychological injuries meant she could not fulfil the inherent requirements of her job, but has criticised the "regrettable" response by the employer's HR department to her bullying allegations.
The FWC has upheld DP World's sacking of a stevedore and self-proclaimed "big fish" in the MUA for bullying two colleagues who stepped outside a worker-maintained "system of control and internal discipline" by taking a complaint to HR.
The FWC has ruled that a cabin crew supervisor, who failed to convince the tribunal last year that his sacking for alleged sexual harassment was unfair, must now pay costs for continuing to pursue his claim after he rejected a $20,000 settlement offer.
The FWC has ruled that the NUW can rely on evidence given to the Heydon Royal Commission by former official Nick Belan in its defence of his unfair dismissal claim, because the Commission is not a court.