An employer that summarily dismissed a casual worker who abused and threatened colleagues should have offered her an opportunity to explain behaviour that might hypothetically have been a reaction to the death of a beloved pet, the FWC has found.
A senior FWC member in upholding a Virgin Australia ground crew worker's dismissal over pilfered cigarettes has noted that "one's fate" is often sealed by attempted cover-ups rather than the actual misconduct, further observing that the former employee did himself no favours when posting on social media that the airline's HR partner was a "despicable human being".
A long-serving industrial tribunal member has taken aim at an employer's claim that summarily sacking a worker by text was a "generational thing", describing the method as "unconscionably undignified" while insisting that dismissals should always be conducted face-to-face.
Sacking a speeding truck driver who hit a kangaroo on a country road was disproportionate to his conduct, the FWC has held, finding he was denied a chance to explain or challenge GPS data.
The FWC has ordered Australia Post subsidiary Startrack Express to compensate a supervisor sacked for repeatedly signing-off on defective drivers' timesheets, finding it wrongly treated his failure as misconduct.
The FWC has upheld a Qantas subsidiary's sacking of a worker who made a deliberate, pre-meditated decision to participate in unprotected industrial action that delayed flights and led to some departing without any catering onboard.
Quashing a finding that an airline unfairly dismissed a sales manager who refused to relocate to Beijing after breaching luggage security, an FWC full bench says a tribunal member wrongly ascribed a "sinister" motive to his transfer.
An underperforming sales representative has been awarded $36,280 in compensation after the FWC found he was effectively dismissed when his employer sought to "game to their advantage" his request for a demotion.
The FWC has awarded $4000 compensation to an injured employee who was preparing to return to work when he was dismissed for serious misconduct that occurred eight months earlier.
A psychometric testing business engaged by child residential-care providers has failed to convince the FWC that it should not reveal its reasons for deeming "currently unsuitable" a supervisor now challenging his dismissal.
