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When an employer responded to an employee's bullying complaints by threatening her mother's job, she had no choice but to resign, the Fair Work Commission has found.

There was no dispute that on 21 June the employee sent an email resigning her position, but Commissioner Scott Connolly accepted she only did so "because of the duress of her employer".

Goodstart Early Learning first employed the cook in August last year, and when she disclosed that her mother worked as a contractor conducting food safety audits, the employer determined this wasn't a conflict of interest.

In June though, when the employee attended a meeting to discuss a bullying complaint she'd made, she said her employer identified there was a potential conflict of interest with her mother's employment, and it was seeking further advice...