Termination of employment – misconduct – s.394 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for relief from unfair dismissal – applicant submitted the respondent told him he had two choices; either resign or be dismissed without notice or accrued entitlements – respondent submitted applicant had resigned due to concerns with his conduct and performance – Commission found applicant constructively dismissed – applicant dismissed due to failure to complete the log book in an accurate and timely manner and the related inability to account for the level of fuel purchases – applicant received detailed written warning relating to conduct and performance – Commission found applicant not guilty of theft or fraud, but that the failure to accurately complete log book constituted valid reason for dismissal – dismissal related to conduct of applicant not performance – applicant notified of primary reason for dismissal – Commission found respondent had a valid reason for dismissal – application dismissed. Ramsay v Hoover Container Solutions P/L
October 13, 2015
Termination of employment – misconduct – s.394 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for unfair dismissal remedy – applicant was a storeman at manufacturing plant – alleged to have committed continued safety breaches and issued with final formal warning for the unsafe operation of a forklift – final warning stated further breaches will result in termination – applicant dismissed after investigation into an incident at work – investigation concluded that applicant breached a 10kph speed limit on car park roadway and was driving in an unsafe manner – no continuity in nature of breach leading to final warning and that which led to dismissal – final warning itself not held as a valid reason for dismissal – Commission held that respondent blinded itself to possibility that termination for breach would be a harsh outcome – applicant denied opportunity to respond – dismissal unreasonable as other employees had breached the Code of Conduct in the same way without the same penalty being imposed – Commission found level of the breach did not warrant dismissal in the circumstances – dismissal, harsh, unjust and unfair – satisfied reinstatement as storeman appropriate remedy – reinstatement and restoration of lost pay ordered. Stephenson v Patties Foods Ltd
October 13, 2015
Termination of employment – misconduct – s.394 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for relief from unfair dismissal – applicant dismissed, without notice, for breaching the respondent’s drug and alcohol policy – applicant underwent a blood alcohol test and returned a reading of 0.013%, and 0.006% to a second test taken 30 minutes later – applicant submitted that the policy only required a reading to be taken to two decimal places – Commission satisfied that 0.00% permissible alcohol level, when read in conjunction with zero tolerance, and with the specific wording of the policy makes it clear that an employee with any blood alcohol content in their system will be in breach of the policy – Commission satisfied that there was no evidence that applicant breached the policy at any other time – Commission not satisfied that the applicant was advised of the multitude of reasons relied on for his dismissal – applicant was unfairly dismissed – compensation reduced by 30% due to applicant’s misconduct – applicant awarded $11,507.16. Ingham v Metro Quarry Group P/L
October 13, 2015
Conditions of employment – redundancy – s.120 Fair Work Act 2009 – application to vary redundancy pay – applicant submitted redundancy payment should be reduced as offer of other acceptable employment made to respondent – respondent declined offer – respondent submitted offer could not be considered objectively as ‘acceptable employment’ [Vicstaff] – respondent contended increased distance, increased cost of petrol and significant variation to current employment unreasonable – Commission held location of alternative employment not unreasonably distant – work was of a like nature – differences in roles and inconvenience to respondent did not make alternative employment unacceptable [Datacom Systems] – variation in redundancy pay recognises difference in travel time, associated costs – applicant order to pay respondent 5 weeks redundancy pay less appropriate taxation within 14 days of decision. RSEA P/L v Tuba Ang
October 13, 2015
The star attraction today will be the Department of Defence running its defence of the dismissal of one of its members (Repo). The rest of the Fair Work Commission’s workload will include a visit from: FMR Investments (Quinlan), University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences (Kollar), Gold Coast Intitute of Technology (Powell), Southport Yacht Club Inc (Bromley), Fibreglass Design Panels Pty Ltd (Chimonides), Bedford Phoenix Incorporated (Waszeniuk), Coles Supermatkets Australia Pty Ltd and Bi-Li Pty Limited (Hart), Lantrak Personnel Pty Ltd (Sellings), Schlumberger Australia Pty Ltd (Maitieg), Business Network Services Pty Ltd (Hay, Broadbent), Interfab Pty Limited (Lovett), Applied Fire Protection & Maintenance Pty Ltd (Haynes), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Tan), Lidco Oregon Australia Pty Ltd (Yokohata) and ComfortDelgroCabcharge (Enami Fard).
October 12, 2015
The minerals extraction industry is represented in the Fair Work Commission today by Whitehaven Coal Mining Ltd. The fossil fuel miner has a quartet ( Harris, Heath, Kingdom and Shephard) attempting to mine the company’s resources. Other employers on parade today include: NUS Consulting Group Pty Limited (Connolly), Aurizon Operations Limited (Plant), Mermaid Marine Vessel Operations Pty Ltd (Baker/Harty), Queensland University of Technology (Leong), Merck Sharpe and Dohme (Australia) Pty Ltd (French), Print Wharehouse (Kolozsi), Cavglass Pty Ltd (Cave), Redmako RTO (Garner), Saxon Energy Services Australia Pty Ltd (Clements-Kupsch), ESS Engineering Services and Supplies Pty Ltd (Gilbert), Comcare Australia (Hutchinson), Knox City Council (Dunne Pfeiffer), Winslow Constructors (Proud), Australian Postal Corporation (Mc Cann), Regal Cream Products Pty Ltd & Regal Cream Products Pty Ltd (Paatsch), Toll Transitions (Doddi), Commissioner for Public Employment (Smith), Marthakal Homeland Resource Centre Inc (Page/Zikos), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Tan), Hughes Drilling 1 Pty Ltd (Winkcup), Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia Central Operations (Bird), St Josephs College Hunters Hills (Burke).
October 9, 2015
Calvary Home Care Services Ltd is facing an unfair dismissal claim (Lawrence) in Adelaide. Other cases today involve: Rooty Hill RSL Club Limited (Doldol), Coal Service Pty Ltd (Sorenson), Honeywell Ltd (Fisscher), Mackay Sugar Limited (Curtin), Woolworths Limited (Wilson), Period Style Furniture Pty Ltd (McConville), Total Beauty Network (Baker), Toll Transport Pty Ltd (David), Fleetwood Pty Ltd (Glykokalamos), National Training and Development (Flood), ISG Management Pty ltd & ISG Management Pty Ltd (Bowes), Mount Scopus Memorial College Ltd (Price), Teys Australia Southern Pty Ltd (Azami), TNT Express (Styles).
October 8, 2015
The tourism sector is over represented in today’s Fair Work Commission unfair dismissal hearing lists. Airlines Cleaning Services Pty Ltd (Nguyen), China Southern Airlines Limited (Mohanan) and Alliance Airlines Pty Limited (Van Bentum) will all be paraded before the industrial umpire. Other attendees today include: Ainsworth Game Technology Limited (Odgers), UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide Inc (Ha), Palcove Pty Ltd (Morris), Pure Espresso Pty Ltd (Rogerson), Tremor Group Pty Ltd (Munn), Betterway Capital PL AMP Financial Planning (Dally-Watkins), IQ Capital Pty Ltd (Dally-Watkins), Parmalat Australia Ltd (Parahi), City of Perth (Frost), Parmalat Food Products Pty Ltd (Tran), SPCG Pty Ltd ATF the SPCG Services Trust (Gorrie), Redstar Transport Operations Pty Ltd (Stubbs), Civil & Property Development Consulting Pty Ltd (Green), FMR Investments (Quinlan), Stanwell Corporation Limited (Stover), Konute Enterprises (Lama), Transdev Melbourne Pty Ltd (Walpola) and Latrobe City Council (Kyriacou).
