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After responding to multiple performance and conduct concerns with only warnings and counselling, an employer has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission that it had a valid reason to opt for termination.

Even if the employer had evidence to support all its complaints, there was no "trigger event" that would warrant moving to dismissal, Commissioner Damian Sloan found.

In unfair dismissal proceedings, the employee claimed the employer, and specifically its general manager (who said he was the sole decision maker in the employee's dismissal), had fabricated most of its evidence. The employee claimed he didn't attend meetings to which the GM's diary notes referred, for example, and that notes weren't taken in his presence (as the GM contended).

Similarly, the employer argued the employee had drafted statements for all his witnesses, and each had "simply signed it with little or no input"...