The FWC has reinforced the importance of dismissals being communicated face to face after finding that a worker's claim she never received an emailed termination letter had to be put down to an "unexplained vagary of cyberspace".
A prison officer has successfully challenged a finding that he was fairly dismissed for using excessive force on a prisoner with a psychiatric illness, an FWC full bench holding that Victoria's Department of Justice lacked a valid reason.
A bus driver who replied to a customer complaint by writing "f--k off I know nothing" on his employer's response form did not commit serious misconduct justifying instant dismissal, but his hampering of other employees performing business-critical tasks warranted his sacking, the FWC has found.
The FWC has granted a 55-day extension for a legally blind worker to challenge his sacking over a Facebook exchange after considering its effect on his mental state and his steps to obtain the assistance of disability and law advocates.
A Qantas relationship manager who claims superiors bullied her by removing first class travel perks and subjecting her to consecutive investigations is suing the airline for taking alleged discriminatory adverse action after she was diagnosed with depression.
While acknowledging the potentially "considerable" impact on a probationary doctor's career, the Federal Court has on appeal rejected that her bullying complaints were the real reason for her sacking, rather than her breach of professional boundaries and directions on confidentiality.
The FWC has over a university's jurisdictional objections allowed a professional officer's largely "incompetent" unlawful dismissal claim to proceed, inviting him to re-submit an application confined to alleged discrimination on the basis of political opinion.
The FWC has declined to adjourn an unfair dismissal case despite a former Victoria Police employee's concerns he is constrained after exercising his right to silence in a criminal case largely reliant on the same set of contested facts.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a catering assistant who coughed in the face of a nurse taking his temperature on-site immediately before he began his shift at an aged care home.
An "incompetent" HR manager's bungled sacking of a retail worker has contributed to an FWC finding that it was unfair, despite the employee's secret recordings of disciplinary meetings providing a valid reason.
