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An employer was entitled to dismiss an employee who committed safety breaches to provoke a reaction from colleagues and then threw an "adult tantrum" when they called him out on it, the Fair Work Commission has found.

The MML Civil Construction labourer was sacked in June this year due to his unwillingness to perform work tasks and cooperate with co-workers, which it claimed posed "significant and immediate" health and safety risks.

In unfair dismissal proceedings, the employer told the Commission that it had a valid reason to sack the employee because of his serious safety breaches on 30 May.

According to the employer, the employee had been asked to cut a piece of timber but instead of cutting straight through it, he held the spinning drop saw in the middle of the timber for about 30 seconds and looked around, making eye contact with his co-workers, waiting for a reaction...