A raft of new tribunal decisions are instructive for employers on how to manage bullying complaints and handle disciplinary action following employee misconduct.
Employers can't rely on any general principle to dismiss employees for reputational damage, so those without an explicit policy requiring workers to act consistently with their good reputation could be taking a significant risk, a lawyer warns.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected the findings of an HR manager's misconduct investigation after hearing she failed to interview key witnesses, including the accused employee.
The Fair Work Commission has slammed an employer's investigation and dismissal of an employee for leaking "confidential HR information", describing the process as a "very regrettable display of incompetence".
An unfair dismissal decision highlights that in some circumstances it will be fair for an employer to sack a worker for serious out-of-hours misconduct that has no connection to work, an employment lawyer says.
Discussions of a s-xual nature "have no place at work", the Fair Work Commission has ruled in finding an employee was fairly sacked for asking a colleague at work if she'd had an abortion.
An employer must pay a worker $110k in damages, after an appeal court found the terms of his contract required more than an "opinion" of wrongdoing to justify his dismissal.
An employer has to reinstate a worker who described its customers online as "spastics and junkies", after the Fair Work Commission found dismissal was a disproportionate response to his misconduct.
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.
