A reinstatement order for a long-serving employee who was sacked for breaching a workplace D&A policy has been upheld, after a Fair Work Commission full bench found the decision wasn't "unreasonable or plainly unjust".
Many organisations could tighten up their processes for recruiting and managing employees who work with vulnerable people, but according to a compliance expert, there's also a major opportunity to overhaul accreditation and background-checking at a national level.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has denied an employer permission to appeal against reinstating a sacked worker, ruling there were no errors in a previous finding that the dismissal was valid, but unreasonable.
A full bench of the Fair Work Commission has upheld the reinstatement of an employee who was sacked for taking medically prescribed cannabis, despite his employer's appeal on workplace safety grounds.
Maintaining a beard was not "merely a matter of personal preference", according to a Roman Catholic employee, who claimed his employer discriminated against him when it denied him a personal protective equipment exemption.
The seven-figure damages award arising from a mishandled termination process serves as an extra reminder for employers to consider the interplay between employment contracts and company policies and procedures, a workplace lawyer says.
It was unfair to summarily dismiss an employee who had a "genuine misunderstanding" of what his employer required, regardless of his serious misconduct, according to the Fair Work Commission.
A potential inconsistency in an employer's D&A policy did not undermine its dismissal of a worker who had breached it three times, a full bench of the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Failing to disclose use of medicinal marijuana clearly breached an employer's policy, but the employee didn't act with "malevolence", the Fair Work Commission has ruled in ordering his reinstatement.
An employer's failure to include a critical safety rule in its 'consolidated' D&A manual has undermined its objection to reinstating a worker sacked for breaching its policy.
Some employers have successfully stepped up to the task of managing psychosocial safety, but in many other workplaces, initiatives are falling flat. Join us for an HR Daily webinar to understand what's holding back progress in this critical space and how to move forward.