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Relying on complaints from seven years ago was "misconceived", the Fair Work Commission has ruled, in finding a worker accused of s-xual misconduct should be reinstated.

Despite the "extremely serious" allegations, the company failed to put forward direct witness evidence to rebut the worker's strong denials of engaging in "ongoing and repeated" misconduct, Deputy President Ian Masson found.

The case involved a driver engaged through the Uber platform, but it's relevant for employers dealing with historical sexual misconduct allegations because it applies the same reasoning as an unfair dismissal claim.

"While the Commission's jurisdiction relating to unfair deactivation is new, much of the reasoning in case law relating to unfair dismissals can be applied to the jurisdiction because of the similarity in the language chosen by the legislature in drafting these provisions," Commissioner Oanh Tran stated recently, in an unrelated decision...