The FWC has awarded compensation to a sacked childcare worker after noting the "disturbing" failure of a company's HR department to inform the chief executive of protections for employees forced to take time off due to illness or injury.
A criminal lawyer has succeeded in overturning findings that he unfairly sacked a solicitor and practice manager he accused of "insubordination" and "sabotage", a FWC bench ruling that a tribunal member was too dismissive of his explanation for missing a hearing.
The FWC has ordered compensation for a bottleshop manager held to have asked a customer "would you like a root hehehe receipt", finding his employer had no excuse for its "procedurally disastrous" sacking after accessing an employer organisation's IR advice.
The FWC has questioned the choices that left two sacked childcare workers out of pocket despite being awarded compensation of 21 weeks' pay, observing that a "realistic" approach to the employer's settlement offer would have avoided costs that included having a barrister represent them before the tribunal over three days.
The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
Inghams unfairly sacked an Ethiopian-born worker for failing to weight-check multiple boxes of turkey leg, the FWC has held, noting its failure to provide a translator while "superficially" adhering to correct procedures might explain why it did not know he was following a supervisor's instructions.
A FWC full bench has upheld a finding that a Toll health and safety representative was not entitled to be paid for attending the disciplinary meetings of another HSR, or grabbing a coffee after, and was after a "commendable" process rightfully sacked for falsifying his timesheets.
A family-run venue management and catering business with thousands of workers and an "unsophisticated" and "impotent" HR function constructively dismissed its manager at a major stadium after issuing her two "entirely unsatisfactory" warnings for conduct that included requesting free tickets to a Geelong v Richmond AFL game.
In an important out-of-hours conduct ruling, the FWC has reinstated a veteran train driver sacked after he told his employer that he faced possible imprisonment for blowing four times over the blood alcohol limit when police breath-tested him on the road.
The FWC has upheld a Qube subsidiary's sacking of a truck driver who blamed a positive blood alcohol reading on sucking on three-quarters of a 10-pack of Anticol cough lozenges to counter a dry throat.
