Making an employee's pre-parental leave position redundant repudiated her employment contract, but this only turned into a termination when she filed a general protections dismissal dispute, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Compliance with an enterprise agreement alone does not constitute a reasonable business ground for refusing a flexible work request, a Fair Work Commission full bench has confirmed in dismissing an employer's appeal.
Attempting to recast racially offensive language as a "linguistic misunderstanding" doesn't negate its effect on colleagues and the workplace, the Fair Work Commission has noted in upholding an employee's dismissal.
An employee who breached a workplace policy, ignored a direction and then unilaterally left a disciplinary meeting was unfairly dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has found.
The fact an employee might be reinstated to the organisation against which she sought stop-bullying orders wasn't enough to overcome a jurisdictional objection to her claim.
Confrontational behaviour that prompted an employee's dismissal was not a "one-off incident", the Fair Work Commission has found, in ruling that his history of disruptive and challenging conduct rendered the decision fair.
There was no reasonable basis for an employee to believe he was being bullied; rather, he sought to "entrench" himself as a victim, the Fair Work Commission has found in refusing to issue stop-bullying orders.
Undertaking "preparatory steps" to establish a competing business while still employed will rarely be considered a breach of fiduciary and contractual obligations, a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has highlighted, in refusing an employer's unfair dismissal appeal.
The Fair Work Commission is allowing a late general protections claim to proceed, after an employer advertised a "similar" job to one it made redundant, just one day after the three-week time limit expired.
When a senior leader at the ABC sacked an employee who expressed a political view on social media, he disregarded warnings that it "would be worth looping in P&C" to ensure the employer's established disciplinary process was followed, the Federal Court has noted in ordering pecuniary penalties.
Workplace bullying complaints continue to pose significant challenges for employers, including where the behaviour doesn't meet the legal definition of bullying or the threshold to make a claim. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to understand key lessons from cases where bullying complaints interact with other claims and issues.
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