A worker has been granted a 13-day extension for filing an unfair dismissal application after the FWC accepted his sacking during the coronavirus pandemic left him in "a bad way".
A tribunal member has determined it would be an "overly formal" exercise of the FWC's powers to bin a late unfair dismissal claim after the applicant was belatedly informed she had filed an incomplete form.
In a significant decision considering representative error, a solicitor has failed to convince the FWC that his miscalculations in filing a late unfair dismissal application justified an extension, after the worker waited 15 days to confirm she wanted to proceed.
A Salvation Army recruitment agency worker accused of threatening to break colleagues' fingers if they adjusted the air conditioning has failed to convince the FWC that her stress disorder and a delayed dismissal letter justified an extension of time.
Members who pursue unfair dismissal applications through their union should expect the same expertise and professionalism as would be provided by a lawyer, the FWC has found in granting an extension of time due to representative error.
A worker has who discovered evidence, two weeks after the deadline for lodging an unfair dismissal claim, that her redundancy might not be genuine, has won an extension of time.
The TWU is continuing with its bid to establish that gig workers are employees, lodging an unfair dismissal claim on behalf of a Deliveroo rider allegedly sacked for slow deliveries and launching a challenge to a full bench finding that an Uber rider was not an employee.
The FWC will hear an Australia Post worker's late unfair dismissal claim despite finding he had "no basis" for believing the 21-day limit began only after the employer reviewed the decision.
In what stands as a tribute to the qualities the FWC looks for in employers' legal representatives, an experienced tribunal member has praised a senior associate for "a masterclass in the art of advocacy" that avoided bamboozling or belittling an unrepresented bus driver.
