It was reasonable to summarily dismiss an employee who responded to performance concerns by calling managers "c-nts" in a staff Facebook group chat, the Fair Work Commission has found.
With the festive season approaching, a workplace relations expert warns employers not to underestimate the effect alcohol has on behaviour, reminding them of their new "positive duty" to prevent inappropriate conduct.
An employer couldn't have reasonably foreseen an employee's "extraordinary" psychiatric response to his wrongful dismissal, a court has ruled in overturning his $1.44m damages award.
Sharing offensive material with colleagues on social media was "abject stupidity", a Fair Work Commission full bench has found, but the conduct wasn't sufficiently connected to work to justify dismissal.
An employee was inappropriately accused of "criminal" conduct then subjected to a procedurally deficient investigation, the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding her unfair dismissal claim.
A commission has criticised an employee's complaint about a "racist and s-xually inappropriate" Microsoft Teams message, finding it unnecessarily consumed "countless" work hours and thousands of dollars in lost productivity.
An employer's failure to suspend a manager "at any time" during a 10-month investigation into aggressive conduct allegations has undermined its decision to dismiss him.
The former CEO of Harrier Group was summarily dismissed for deliberately misusing her work credit card while the company was struggling financially, not because she raised bullying and pay issues, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled.
An employee's "severe error in judgement" in attending work while intoxicated outweighed his employer's "meaningful failure" to check on his welfare after sending him home, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A team leader who choked a colleague and threatened to kill another after they "provoked" him was fairly dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has ruled, rejecting that his actions were a "fight or flight" response and therefore justified.
All employers should consider putting in place a workplace s-xual harassment prevention plan, even though such plans are only expressly prescribed in one jurisdiction, according to a risk management expert.
Recent events have shone a spotlight on whistleblowing, placing employers firmly on notice that their response to a protected disclosure could be subject to intense scrutiny. Watch this webcast to understand the role HR plays in this challenging space.
