Misconduct page 14 of 60

A four-member FWC full bench has overturned the reinstatement of a long-serving train driver sacked after he divulged he faced criminal charges for high-range drink driving, ruling that a presidential member failed to properly consider the connection between his out-of-hours conduct and his safety-critical job.

A university professor who won reinstatement after being sacked for being "s-xually intimate" with a student during a naked swim has failed to have his and his employer's names removed from the FWC's published decision, despite his concerns the case will attract extra publicity because he is a namesake of the Australian Prime Minister.

A police officer sacked for repeatedly asking a colleague to go on a date with him has had his dismissal upheld by the NSW IRC.

The FWC has acknowledged the "minefield" faced by employers hiring workers with criminal records, in a decision upholding a supermarket chain's dismissal of an employee who objected to working alongside a s-x offender.

The FWC has despite claims of innocence upheld the sacking of an experienced school crossing supervisor who asked to touch an after-school program worker's hair before making "s-xually demeaning" comments.

The FWC has upheld the flawed sacking of a health and safety manager after phone records revealed she sent an "extraordinary and unacceptable" amount of text messages at work while overseeing her growing side business.

The FWC has upheld, despite some procedural failings, the ACTU's dismissal of a call centre employee over Facebook posts that "cheered on" an anti-vaccine mandate campaign, applauded aggression against police, mocked domestic violence, disparaged black people and vilified transgender people.

The FWC has taken Westpac to task for staging a networking soirée in a sports bar with free alcohol and found it appeared to cloud the judgement of a senior manager who touched a junior colleague's buttocks, but has nevertheless upheld his "catastrophic" sacking.

The FWC has upheld the summary dismissal of a designer for revealing his small business employer's confidential information and intellectual property.

In a significant ruling on dismissals deemed harsh by the FWC, a full bench has endorsed the "unorthodox" approach taken by a member who ordered the reinstatement of a forklift driver who breached an employer's "no mobile phones" policy.