An employee's dishonesty during an investigation into his out-of-hours misconduct made his dismissal fair, while a colleague sacked over the same incident won reinstatement. Also in this article: a roundup of recent dismissal rulings.
'Part-time flex' employment is being proposed in this week's IR omnibus bill, while other newly announced measures include a criminal offence of wage theft, and extending pandemic-related flexibilities.
Details of the imminent IR legislation have now been revealed, including a statutory definition of casual work, a fix for double-dipping claims and expanded casual conversion rights.
The Fair Work Commission has accepted an employer's claim that its procedural failures when dismissing an underperforming manager didn't matter to the usual degree, because he had completed the minimum employment period only 11 hours earlier.
Employee resignations are on the rise, and so are disputes about whether they are genuine, or constructive dismissals. This Q&A discusses protective and preventative steps employers can take.
An employee who was "coasting along" under a remote manager has successfully challenged his dismissal, on the basis he was never properly warned that his performance wasn't up to scratch.
Research the FWC is using to inform its award flexibility proposals suggests employees should have a right not to work from home. Also in this article, a new Australian study outlines optimal working from home conditions.
A manager should have better controlled his "easily triggered" temper, the Fair Work Commission has said in upholding his dismissal for verbally abusing a female colleague.
Making employment laws fit for purpose will require much more than "tweaks", and already there appears to be a lost opportunity for input beyond the "usual suspects" with entrenched views, an IR heavyweight says.
An employee's opportunity to respond before he was sacked for serious misconduct was too "narrow in scope", an FWC full bench has ruled, while nonetheless upholding the dismissal as fair.
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.
