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Sacking an employee for breaching a company policy was unfair, the Fair Work Commission has found, in circumstances where there was no evidence she'd received specific instructions, and where she'd previously been "acclaimed" by co-workers for the same conduct.

Commissioner Benjamin Redford accepted the employee shouldn't have intervened in a theft incident in the way she did, but found her safety breaches would have been "more appropriately dealt with by counselling and training, and not termination of employment".

The 67-year-old employee had worked for Endeavour Group Limited, which operates BWS liquor stores, for approximately 17 years before she was sacked in January this year.

The policies she was accused of breaching directed employees to prioritise their own safety and that of their co-workers during theft incidents, and discouraged them from directly intervening...