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An employee who was "simply not reliable" has won his unfair dismissal claim after the Fair Work Commission found his "unacceptable" conduct didn't outweigh his employer's procedural failings.

The Marble & Ceramic Corp forklift driver claimed he was unfairly sacked in November last year after he was injured when some marble became lodged in his eye. He said he had been pressured to return to work despite advising the employer he was certified as unfit.

But the employer denied requiring the employee to work contrary to medical advice, and said it invited him to make a workers' compensation claim, but he chose not to do so.

It said it dismissed the employee, whom it described as "lazy", due to his "continued" poor performance over a number of months, and not because of his eye injury...