An FWC full bench has upbraided a tribunal member for suppressing the name of a sexual harassment complainant without proper consultation, but has upheld the sacking of a manager for the "hostile" and "derogatory" comments he directed at the trainee.
The FWC has ruled on the out-of-hours conduct of a maintenance worker who claimed he was acting in self-defence when he ended up in a fight after a "horsing-around" passer-by took his cowboy hat, leading to his expulsion from the giant Wheatstone LNG project.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a TAFE manager for preparing a false and misleading briefing note in a bid to exculpate himself from responsibility after becoming "caught up" in a training scam, and has rejected his submissions that the employer made him a scapegoat.
The FWC has refused to extend time for an unfair dismissal claim lodged five days late by a pro bono solicitor found to be "primarily responsible" for the delay, ruling that the worker knew the 21-day limit applied and should have followed it up with his representative.
An experienced meatworker's impulse to help out a stressed colleague without taking safety precautions prescribed by his employer's "cardinal rules" justified severing his employment, the FWC has found.
The FWC has acceded to a request to delay an unfair dismissal hearing for two AMWU delegates sacked by Visy Board for allegedly organising unlawful overtime bans, so that they don't prejudice their position in a parallel civil penalty prosecution the company has initiated against the union, an official and 69 employees.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a group training company's trainer for falsifying his timesheets, but has upbraided the employer for failing to give the worker enough time to study the complex allegations against him.
The FWC has found a Coles Supermarkets baker who texted explicit images to a manager who responded "great d--k pic" did not sexually harass him as he appeared to initially take them as "a joke", but the tribunal has upheld his dismissal as his behaviour breached the retailer's code of conduct.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a senior ETU delegate who objected to his employer's introduction of GPS tracking, finding he deliberately wrapped his device in a Twisties bag to conceal his whereabouts and falsified service records when absent from work.
The FWC has reinstated a CFMEU lodge president dismissed for a series of threatening phone calls to workmates after questioning why recommendations and mitigating factors raised during a senior HR advisor's investigations were absent from the employer's final report.
