An employer has been cleared to investigate an employee's out-of-hours conduct, after the Fair Work Commission accepted it held genuine concerns about suffering reputational harm.
It was "extraordinarily insensitive" to tell an employee to be "inclusive of all opinions", including racist ones, the Fair Work Commission has found in unfair dismissal proceedings.
Dismissing an employee because he wouldn't agree to his image or voice being shared on social media, unless he was paid extra for it, amounted to unlawful adverse action, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled.
The way a manager responded to misconduct allegations gave his employer "no reason to hope" he would comply with its code of conduct in future, a commission has found in rejecting his unfair dismissal claim.
An employer has unsuccessfully tried to block a s-xual harassment dispute, arguing it had no utility because it was lodged by a former employee it would "never" hire again, and who had also filed a claim in the Australian Human Rights Commission.
It was reasonably foreseeable that accommodating an employee's preferred rostering arrangement would prompt similar requests from other workers, potentially causing an employer to suffer "significant" efficiency and productivity losses, the Fair Work Commission has found.
An employee made "unparticularised, untrue and potentially defamatory allegations" against her manager in a bid to stop her performance management process, the Federal Circuit Court has found.
Reducing a casual employee's shifts amounted to a dismissal, and denying her an opportunity to respond to the decision rendered it harsh, unjust and unreasonable, the Fair Work Commission has found.
After initially throwing out his claim, the Fair Work Commission has found a mentally unwell employee was dismissed when his employer accepted his resignation, and that his circumstances made this "unquestionably harsh".
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.