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An unfair dismissal claim won by an employee suspected of misusing his personal leave entitlement highlights that employers should avoid making hasty conclusions about misconduct, a lawyer says.

The case is one of five analysed in a new HR Daily Premium webcast, presented by HWLE Lawyers partner Brad Swebeck and special counsel Lily Schafer-Gardiner.

It involved an employee who made an application for carer's leave, citing a family bereavement, four hours before his Australia Day shift was due to start. That same evening he was spotted out to dinner by a manager, and the employer subsequently suspended and sacked him for breaching its code of conduct.

The Fair Work Commission found the dismissal was unfair and ordered the employee's reinstatement, which Schafer-Gardiner says is "a good reminder not to make assumptions without considering all of the evidence during a disciplinary process".

In the excerpt below, she outlines flaws in the employer's process, and why the Commission came to its conclusion...