By Victoria Hansen and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled that a worker who threw a full glass of beer over the heads of his colleagues at an official company Christmas party was justifiably dismissed. This is a significant decision regarding the dismissal of employees for out-of-hours conduct. Sione Vai […]
By Sooraj Sidhu and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal In an unusual case before the Fair Work Commission, an employee has been ordered to pay indemnity costs after finding that she continued to press an unfair dismissal application that was “doomed to fail”. Ordinarily, parties to a claim before the Fair Work Commission will bear their […]
By Alexander Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal Following a protracted legal battle that involved an initial hearing, an appeal and a re-hearing, the Fair Work Commission has held that an employer had no right to accept the repeated resignations of a distressed employee undergoing internal investigation. Bupa Aged Care Australia Pty Ltd t/a Bupa […]
By Sid Sidhu, Workplace Relations Advisor, and Emma Treherne, Principal Workplace Relations Advisor, NRA Legal If my casual employees are not guaranteed hours, can I reduce their shifts? Often employers believe that they can reduce the hours provided to a casual employee if they are, or have been, causing issues within the business. Recent case […]
by Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Georgia Sologinkin v Cosmetic Suppliers Pty Ltd T/A Coty [2017] FWC 1838 An employee who made highly offensive comments about numerous clients of the company was found to have been fairly dismissed by the Fair Work Commission (FWC), earlier last month. The accounts manager, who had been […]
by Angela Szczepanski, Senior Associate, NRA Legal Dismissing an employee can be stressful and is often quoted as the ‘worst part of running a business’. As well as the emotional context, it can be a long and timely process to ensure due process is followed. In particular, special care needs to be taken to minimise […]
Commissioner Julius Roe ordered PQ Australia to compensate a bullied employee $43,900 for forcing him to resign. The FWC found the employee, was unfairly dismissed before being forced to resign for failing to attend an unnecessary medical appointment to be assessed by the company’s nominated doctor. The employee had previously raised concerns about multiple bullying […]
We often receive calls from members who claim to have footage of employees engaged in misconduct. This case is a timely reminder that in order to rely on video footage it must be conclusive. It is simply not enough to have something on camera that is unclear. In Mulhall v Direct Freight (Qld) Pty Ltd […]