Employers are likely to rely more heavily on zero tolerance drug and alcohol policies to discipline or dismiss employees, even when there is no evidence of impairment, after an important full Federal Court ruling yesterday.
The Fair Work Commission has awarded full redundancy pay to a general manager who lost his position after his company acquired another firm, ruling that an offer of a different senior role at the same salary level was not acceptable alternative employment.
In its first full bench examination of the Fair Work Act's reinstatement provisions, the FWC has ruled it has no power to attach conditions to orders returning dismissed workers to their jobs.
In a decision that considers the relevance to his employment of a public servant's conduct outside working hours, a Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that the ATO had a valid reason to dismiss him because his incarceration meant he couldn't carry out his role.
A senior Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that when assessing compensation in an unfair dismissal case, the tribunal needs "cogent evidence" to find that an employee would have been summarily sacked within a short period if the original termination of employment had not occurred.
A five-member bench of the Federal Court has ruled that a company was entitled to summarily dismiss an executive employee for serious misconduct that destroyed the relationship of trust between them, even though it had moved earlier to terminate his employment on six months' notice.
Employers in safety-critical industries might be entitled to enforce zero tolerance policies because there is no scientific test for impairment arising from cannabis use, a Fair Work Commission full bench has suggested.
A Qantas pilot who sexually harassed a female crew member while heavily intoxicated during an international stopover was responsible for his own actions and had suffered "a catastrophic fall from grace", the Fair Work Commission has ruled in rejecting his unfair dismissal claim.
The Fair Work Commission has granted Patrick Stevedores' Port Botany workers access to how they scored when assessed to fill the reduced number of positions at the terminal post-automation, while at the same time venting frustration at the warring parties and withdrawing from private arbitration.
In separate out-of-time rulings, the Fair Work Commission has rejected a sacked employee's challenge to when his dismissal took effect, but given another employee the benefit of the doubt on the "unreliability" of the tribunal's e-filing system.
