Unfair dimissal; valid reason not enough

The fact that an employer may have a valid reason for dismissing an employee does not in itself render the dismissal fair and beyond the reach of a remedy from the Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal. In Little v Credit Corp Group Ltd (2013) FWC 9642, the Commission in an unfair dismissal case found that the employee concerned had denigrated his employer by social media by posting sarcastic comments about its relationship with another company which seriously damaged the relationship between the employee and the employer, damaged the employer’s interests, was incompatible with his duties as an employee and constituted serious misconduct. The Commission accepted that the employer thus had a valid reason for the dismissal but even so went on to consider whether the dismissal was in any event fair, determining in the end that it was because of the way in which the company went about its decision making to dismiss the employee and because the employee had received a previous warning about similar conduct.