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The Fair Work Commission has ordered the reinstatement of a worker who threatened physical violence against a colleague.

In August last year, the drill operator became involved in a verbal altercation with another drill operator, over the cleanliness of shared equipment, while working at Coal & Allied Mining Services' Mount Thorley Warkworth open-cut coal mine.

While the workers disputed accounts of the incident, in unfair dismissal proceedings Deputy President Tony Saunders accepted it culminated in the employee saying: "If this bloke says to go back to the trucks one more time I will cut his throat."

Deputy President Saunders accepted that the colleague had acted inappropriately in raising his frustrations with the employee rather than waiting for supervisors to deal with his complaint...