A Newcastle-based church unfairly summarily dismissed a worker when it took the view that no-one vaccinated against COVID-19 could work for it because it viewed the inoculation as "the world's largest ever untested medical experiment", and retrospectively applied the policy to the worker without warning.
The FWC has reinstated a Sydney Trains worker who used cocaine while on leave, after lambasting the employer for not making it clear that it tests for use rather than impairment and for failing to take on board earlier criticism of its drug and alcohol policy.
A tribunal has awarded $236,000 in damages, plus potential further lost earnings and interest, to a long-serving language teacher who developed a psychological injury when his employer "excluded" him from the workplace for two years after he suffered a debilitating spinal stroke.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a mineworker for failing to disclose his use of prescription medicinal cannabis on his days off, despite the fact he passed all drug tests and left a 32-hour buffer before the start of his working weeks.
An employer held to have caused a psychological injury by imposing a COVID-19 vaccination requirement on a driver must pay more than $80,000 in compensation, plus medical costs, after its unreasonable ultimatum rendered him unable to work.
A NSW IRC full bench has quashed the rejection of an unvaccinated worker's bid for a one-day extension to challenge her sacking after a commissioner found it would cause prejudice and that she has little prospect of success, based on arguments her employer did not make.
In a decision exploring what constitutes a disciplinary investigation, a FWC full bench has quashed a finding that a public transport agency must pay a group of train drivers blocked from attending work after failing to comply with its COVID-19 vaccination policy.
A flight attendant sacked from a Sydney billionaire's private jet for refusing to change hotels before a flight from LA has won compensation, after the FWC found the employer wrongly applied pilots' rest rules and subjected her to an unreasonable order given the time it took her to shop for food for passengers and crew on the long-haul flight.
The FWC has reinstated a Queensland rail worker sacked for breaching the organisation's zero alcohol policy when he blew 0.025 in a random workplace alcohol breath test, finding the dismissal harsh because of his unblemished 39-year tenure, his age and limited education.
