Many employees willingly work long hours, but even if no one's complaining, employers should monitor extra hours to ensure they are reasonable, a lawyer warns.
An employer that moved a full-time employee to a part-time role to reduce its workers' compensation costs has been ordered to pay more than $470k in damages and fines.
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.
The Fair Work Commission has criticised an employer's investigation and subsequent dismissal of a worker for misconduct, saying its HR manager should have ensured a proper process was followed in its show-cause meeting.
An employee who was sacked for refusing to perform aspects of a role he'd been redeployed to has won reinstatement to a different position, with the Fair Work Commission finding he was "simply the wrong person for the job".
An employee who was unfairly sacked for failing to attend a medical exam was not entitled to reinstatement, because his "bombardment" of emails to HR destroyed the employment relationship, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A CEO's redundancy payment has been slashed by $2.5m after an appeal court found he forfeited it by failing to sign a deed of release, while another executive who was originally denied a severance payment has been awarded $375,000.
An employee whose colleague allegedly broke into her home and fell asleep drunk and naked has failed to convince a tribunal that her employer should have done more to prevent his behaviour.
Employers should have clear whistleblower policies that encourage staff to air concerns safely and anonymously, but not offer rewards or compensation in return, says McDonald Murholme employment lawyer Bianca Mazzarella.
