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The Fair Work Commission has expressed disbelief after an employee was sacked for pretending to knee a colleague in the groin, and ordered his reinstatement with continuity of service and backpay.

In February this year, CCTV footage captured the Yarra Trams driver lifting his knee towards a colleague's groin when passing him in the mess hall. The employee later described it as a playful response to a joke that the colleague had been stealing food.

Two days later, the employer suspended him. The suspension letter alluded to an incident that occurred the previous year, where the employee had lightly kneed the same colleague in the back repeatedly. It said that given he'd been warned about "substantially similar behaviour" in the past, disciplinary action might include dismissal.

An investigation subsequently substantiated the allegation and the employer sacked him in May...