A woman whose employment as a solicitor was terminated for repeated unexplained absences, which resulted from domestic violence, was awarded $11,064.28 in compensation after the Fair Work Commission found the dismissal was unfair.
The Industrial Relations Court found Trainee and Apprentice Placement Service Inc had a shared health and safety duty to their employee after placing him with a host employer and was fined $12,000 for failing to uphold this duty.
AIMG BQ Pty Ltd was ordered to pay $272,850 in pecuniary penalties and the director of the company was ordered to pay $8,160 in pecuniary penalties by the Federal Circuit Court of Australia for denying two employees minimum entitlements.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal awarded a woman $3,325.25 for economic loss and $10,000 for non-economic loss after her employment was terminated due to a workplace injury and a failure to make reasonable adjustments.
The Fair Work Commission has found that a volunteer and artist who assisted in a small community based not for profit art gallery is unable to bring a bullying application against the gallery after it was found that she was not a “worker”.
The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has overturned an earlier decision regarding the definition of “ordinary and customary turnover of labour”, finding that a group of workers were not entitled to receive redundancy pay.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has awarded an employee over $1.3 million in damages after finding that her employer was negligent in failing to provide a safe working environment and allowing her to be subjected to extensive abuse, sexual harassment and bullying by her colleagues.
The Fair Work Commission has held an Enterprise Agreement to be invalid due to formal deficiencies in the application process.
A Court has recently found that a company did not take adverse action by dismissing an employee who threatened to take sick leave after having his annual leave request denied.
The Federal Circuit Court of Australia has found that a Turkish interpreter working in a hospital and suffering from depression was not subject to unlawful adverse action because of her mental disability.
The High Court of Australia has ruled that courts may consider civil penalties that have been agreed and proposed by parties.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered MSS to remove a disciplinary warning from an employee’s records after a dispute was lodged under the workplace enterprise agreement.
The dismissal of a fork-lift truck driver for being overweight has been held to be not unfair by the Fair Work Commission.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has found the Commonwealth liable to pay compensation to an employee, after they suffered a stroke whilst showering in a hotel on a business trip.
The Fair Work Commission has granted a real estate agent an order to stop bullying after she was subjected to aggressive lectures, ignored, belittled and defriended on Facebook by her Sales Administrator.
The District Court of South Australia has awarded damages of $75,000 plus an award for economic loss (yet to be determined) to an employee who was defamed after a co-worker sent an email to 2,300 colleagues stating that he was homosexual and looking for someone to engage in a sexual relationship.
An employee who took his former employer’s confidential and copyrighted information without authorisation, and used it for person gain, was ordered to pay $50,000 and his former employer’s legal costs.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that some of the questions asked when applying for a position on Woolworths’ recruitment website contravene the Anti-Discrimination Act in that they discriminate against potential employees on the basis of race, age and sex.
In the recent decision of Fair Work Ombudsman v WKO Pty Ltd [2012] FCA 1129, the Federal Court imposed penalties on a child care operator and a director arising out of adverse action taken against an employee upon the disclosure of her pregnancy.
The NSW Administrative Appeals tribunal full bench has recently awarded a 75 year old bus driver $25,323 in compensation after he was dismissed because of his age. The dismissal occurred after a low speed accident involving the bus driver. Prior to this, in 2007, the bus driver had had his hours reduced because he was “getting old” and he was told “that it was time for him to retire”.