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Giving an employee one day to respond to a show-cause letter after accusing him of assaulting a colleague was unreasonable, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in upholding his unfair dismissal claim.

Deputy President Terri Butler found the employer had denied the employee's request for extra time to respond, in circumstances where he spent most of the response time organising his transport home.

The Commission heard that the Odell Resources operator, who worked at the Wiluna Mine in Leonora, Western Australia, was involved in a physical altercation with the colleague on 18 September last year.

The employer stood him down the next day and then on 23 September, which was a public holiday, it gave him until one day later to respond to its allegations...