Making an employee's pre-parental leave position redundant repudiated her employment contract, but this only turned into a termination when she filed a general protections dismissal dispute, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Attempting to recast racially offensive language as a "linguistic misunderstanding" doesn't negate its effect on colleagues and the workplace, the Fair Work Commission has noted in upholding an employee's dismissal.
An employee who breached a workplace policy, ignored a direction and then unilaterally left a disciplinary meeting was unfairly dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has found.
The Federal Circuit Court has reconsidered and set aside its finding that an employer discriminated against an employee with ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome when it dismissed her.
The fact an employee might be reinstated to the organisation against which she sought stop-bullying orders wasn't enough to overcome a jurisdictional objection to her claim.
Confrontational behaviour that prompted an employee's dismissal was not a "one-off incident", the Fair Work Commission has found, in ruling that his history of disruptive and challenging conduct rendered the decision fair.
A role with comparable characteristics was not an "acceptable" alternative for a retrenched employee, partly because it involved travelling to the office an extra day each week, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Undertaking "preparatory steps" to establish a competing business while still employed will rarely be considered a breach of fiduciary and contractual obligations, a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has highlighted, in refusing an employer's unfair dismissal appeal.
The Fair Work Commission is allowing a late general protections claim to proceed, after an employer advertised a "similar" job to one it made redundant, just one day after the three-week time limit expired.
When a senior leader at the ABC sacked an employee who expressed a political view on social media, he disregarded warnings that it "would be worth looping in P&C" to ensure the employer's established disciplinary process was followed, the Federal Court has noted in ordering pecuniary penalties.
Costly legal disputes continue to highlight the many risks employers face when managing, disciplining, or dismissing employees while they are absent, injured or incapacitated. Attend this webinar for an up-to-date review of the legal framework applying to workplace absenteeism, injury and incapacity, and lessons from recent case law.
