The FWC has awarded $8000 compensation to an airport employee who transferred sensitive files from his work computer onto a personal USB, finding the employer took a "kitchen sink" approach to allegations used to justify his summary dismissal.
In what stands as a lesson in managing employees with deeply-held grievances, a senior tribunal member has commended a large employer's HR department for its patience in trying to accommodate a "very difficult" worker before his dismissal.
A managing director's attempt to "point-score" during hearings into the dismissal of an employee who feared a gun-owning co-worker has been decried by an FWC commissioner as among the "poorest displays" from a respondent she has encountered in five years on the Commission.
In a warning about the myriad ways disciplinary investigations can go wrong, the FWC has rejected virtually every finding a large government agency relied on to sack an experienced rail employee who described his dismissal meeting as a "Pearl Harbour" moment.
An FWC senior member who considered a bus driver's submissions on procedural fairness to be "unduly pernickety" wrongly found he was properly notified and had a chance to respond, but a full bench has upheld his sacking.
The FWC has declined to hear an NRL assistant coach's late claim that his club unfairly dismissed him during the season's temporary suspension due to COVID-19, but has conceded that he might reasonably feel "particularly aggrieved" about his selection for redundancy.
A company forced to reinstate a senior executive sacked more than three years ago after a stoush with a HR manager has successfully appealed, with the Federal Court to redetermine his adverse action case if not resolved at mediation.
A SA youth worker sacked after he was deemed "psychologically unsuitable" has failed to overturn a finding that his employer had no option because of the job's inherent requirement that he pass the psychometric test.
In a decision underlining the perils faced by workers who are not covered by awards or enterprise agreements, the FWC has found an employer had no statutory obligation to consult an employee about its plans to make him redundant.
The FWC has ordered compensation for an award-winning Ray White real estate salesperson sacked after "stirring the pot" over plans to pass on only a proportion of JobKeeper payments to commission-based employees.