Mr Canales accepted a part-time window-installer job with Thermashield but missed his intended first day because of a migraine. The case turned on whether an employment relationship had already been formed and whether later text messages brought it to an end.
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Results for unpaid wages
Hai Zheng's employment dispute with JCD concerned whether he had resigned or whether employer breaches caused his departure, together with associated disadvantage and contractual claims. The ERA examined whether the employer's conduct made resignation a reasonably foreseeable consequence.
Mr van Heerden was told at a 30 January 2024 meeting that his position had been disestablished and his employment was ending for redundancy. The decision had effectively been made before he was told his job was at risk, and the process mixed redundancy with irrelevant performance and conduct concerns.
Ms McCann resigned while on sick leave after conflict with Winton Capital, pressure around the employment relationship and removal of access to a senior executive's email and calendar. She alleged the cumulative conduct made continued employment untenable.
Ms Cuc was dismissed with one week's notice under what the nail-salon employer said was a 90-day trial period. She said the real issue was that she was outspoken about her employment rights, while performance criticisms were advanced later in the ERA proceeding.
Lindisfarne College dismissed long-serving IT manager Kevin Whelan after a serious comment to students while showing CCTV footage of an accident. Although the misconduct could justify dismissal, the College paid four weeks in lieu rather than complying with the collective agreement's one-month notice mechanism or properly invoking instant dismissal.
Phil Jacklin argued that Planit Software Testing's short-term incentive clause guaranteed him a 25 percent bonus paid quarterly. The employer said the scheme was discretionary, while a separate issue concerned its failure to set KPIs and eligible amounts at the beginning of the financial year as promised.
Delivery drivers Ziyu Xiao, Youtian Yang and Limei Liu lost access to Fast Horse's app or WhatsApp work channels after raising concerns about their work and pay. The ERA examined whether those digital cut-offs amounted to dismissals and whether the employer had also caused unjustified disadvantage beforehand.
