Australia: Three surprising unfair dismissal cases

Employers should be aware of three recent cases where employees were found to be unfairly dismissed in arguably surprising circumstances.

In Anderson v Thiess Pty Ltd [2014] FWC 6568, Mr Anderson was summarily dismissed for sending a work email that was highly offensive to persons of the Muslim faith. Despite finding that the email was in clear breach of Thiess’ policies and had the potential to cause significant reputational damage to Thiess, the Fair Work […]

By | October 27th, 2014 ||

Australia: Making someone redundant whilst on parental leave – is it automatically grounds for a discrimination claim?

No!

A recent decision has highlighted that an employee’s absence (whether on parental leave or some other form of leave) can, in the right circumstances, lead to the conclusion that that employee’s position is not in fact required.

In the relevant case a female employee alleged that she was “targeted” by management as a consequence of her pregnancy, the birth of her child and her parental leave, and that her redundancy was “manufactured” rather than being […]

By | October 26th, 2014 ||

Australia: Have you ever had an employee lie about their qualifications in a job interview?

The Fair Work Commission has ruled that a mechanic who mislead his employer about his qualifications in a job interview was justified in terminating his employment for, among other things, failing to fulfil the inherent requirements of the job.

In the job interview the mechanic told the employer that he did not hold a formal trade qualification, but that he only had six training modules to complete.

After approximately eight months the mechanic asked for a […]

By | October 26th, 2014 ||