This is an interesting and instructive decision of the Fair Work Commission. In this matter the Commission has upheld the summary dismissal of a HR Manager, otherwise highly regarded by the Employer, following an interesting series of events in the workplace. Background The HR Manager (‘Applicant’), who also held additional roles in the business, had […]
The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has handed down an important decision relating to a labour hire company’s decision to terminate an employee who they were directed to remove from one of their client’s work sites. In this particular case, the Employee had been employed by the labour hire company (‘Company’) and had […]
The Federal Circuit Court has recently determined that an employee did not have an automatic entitlement to paid further compassionate leave, in circumstances where she refused to produce adequate evidence relating to her further leave request. In brief, the employee’s grandfather passed away, and the employee took compassionate leave on the day he died. Then […]
In this month’s Update we examine a recent case where an employee found to have committed an act of serious misconduct was still successful in his unfair dismissal application to the Fair Work Commission. Outline of Facts: The Applicant in this case was the manager of a well-known shoe store chain in a suburb of […]
A crane hire company has been ordered to pay $25,500 in penalties after it was found to have taken adverse action against a union delegate who raised complaints about his pay. The employee claimed that he and his colleagues, who were covered by the Company’s enterprise agreement, were entitled to penalty rates in addition to […]
An employer has failed in defending an unfair dismissal claim, with the consistency of its disciplinary action, for this employee as against others, called into question. In late 2015, a group of employees took industrial action against the employer in relation to enterprise agreement negotiations. The Applicant employee in this case left a voicemail message […]
This month we are looking at two of the more interesting issues to arise out of union ‘interventions’ in workplaces. Right of entry – does it extend to before and after work? In a recent case, the Fair Work Commission was asked to consider whether the right of entry laws extended to holding discussions during […]
A Mine Grader Operator has been successful in being reinstated to his job, but the Fair Work Commission denied him compensation for the period in which he was without a job, stating that the employee must accept “a substantial degree of responsibility for the financial consequences of his dismissal”. The employee was terminated following an […]
The Fair Work Ombudsman has been successful in obtaining an Order that will serve as a warning to Company Directors, where the company is underpaying staff. This was a security services company (and also with a history of dealings with the FWO), that admitted a number of contraventions relating to the underpayment of 8 employees […]
On 9 June 2016, the FWO confirmed the securing of an Enforceable Undertaking with a Victorian based mining employer. The Undertaking sets out that since August 2015, the mining services company has been the subject of 11 requests for assistance to the FWO “relating to allegations of underpayment of wages, penalty rates and shift allowances”. […]