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A safety-critical employee, who turned up to work in an impaired and unfit state to perform his role, has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission he shouldn't have been summarily sacked because his misconduct wasn't "serious".

The employee argued his breach of the employer's drug and alcohol policy was "an isolated incident and an inadvertent mistake with no lasting harm", but Commissioner Benjamin Redford said to characterise it in such a way "misunderstands the nature of the risk".

The silo operator had worked for Cement Australia at its Railton site in Tasmania since 2017.

He was sacked in August 2025 for serious misconduct, after a random drug test found amphetamines and methamphetamines in his system...