Log in or become a subscriber

Despite "profoundly troubling" evidence about an employee's inappropriate workplace interactions, a Fair Work Commission full bench has declined to overturn a finding that his dismissal was unfair.

Granting permission for the appeal was in the public interest, the bench found, but the employer hadn't proved the initial decision contained errors of fact regarding the employee's insight into his conduct.

The case involved a University of Melbourne professor, who was sacked in December 2024 for engaging in "wilful and deliberate contraventions" of the employer's behaviour policy, some seven years earlier.

Specifically, the employer's investigation found that in 2017 he had communicated with a student he was supervising in an unprofessional, inappropriate, overly personal, romantic and intimate manner...