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An employer has failed to defend sacking a worker who made "s-xist, misogynist and racist" posts in a private Facebook group, after the Fair Work Commission found it treated him "substantially differently" to a colleague.

The Ventia leading firefighter, based at a naval air station in Nowra, was dismissed in September last year for sharing offensive content in two private Facebook groups, one of which was called the 'Sickos Video Sharing Group'.

In unfair dismissal proceedings, Commissioner Bernie Riordan heard that the group comprised 11 of the employee's current colleagues, three former colleagues and three others who weren't associated with the employer...