The Fair Work Commission has cleared an employee to pursue a general protections dismissal claim against her employer, after it said she'd need to earn the respect of new staff through a "staged" return from parental leave before she could resume her previous HR duties.
A manager's withdrawal from a "fair and reasonable" performance management process left her employer with no choice but to sack her, or it risked others disregarding its directions in the future, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
A labour hire worker has been blocked from pursuing a general protections claim against two purported employers, with the Fair Work Commission accepting that neither terminated his employment.
After being ordered to reinstate an employee sacked for physical violence, an employer has failed to convince a Fair Work Commission full bench that the earlier decision applied the wrong legal test for self-defence.
Emails to an HR practitioner showed an employee appreciated his help in facilitating her retirement, and not that she was "forced down a path she did not want to take", the Fair Work Commission has found.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected that an employee was unfairly dismissed for physically assaulting a coworker, despite flaws in the termination process and the overall harshness of the decision.
Covertly applying for a job with an employer's client didn't breach an employee's contractual restraint, but it was nonetheless misconduct that warranted her dismissal, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Engaging an external contractor didn't undermine an employer's genuine redundancy defence to an unfair dismissal claim, the Fair Work Commission has found, rejecting there were any signs of a "sham".
An employee has been chastised for "grasping at excuses for his unacceptable conduct", with the Fair Work Commission accepting he posed a "serious and imminent risk" to workplace health and safety and was fairly sacked.
Mischaracterising a performance issue as misconduct is a common mistake that can significantly undermine an employer's defence of unfair dismissal claims, a lawyer says.
Workplace bullying complaints continue to pose significant challenges for employers, including where the behaviour doesn't meet the legal definition of bullying or the threshold to make a claim. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to understand key lessons from cases where bullying complaints interact with other claims and issues.
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