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A senior HR advisor's disciplinary process was unnecessarily lengthy and beset with "obvious problems", but that didn't outweigh that she had breached the employer's code of conduct, a commission has ruled.

Despite its "significant procedural flaws", the employer's conclusions were open to it on the evidence, and were therefore fair and reasonable, Queensland Industrial Relations Commissioner Roslyn McLennan said.

In July last year, the Department of Transport and Main Roads found the senior HR advisor had "counselled and procured", and then "aided and abetted", a manager's decision to end an on-hire worker's assignment in May 2022, for reasons including that he'd said he was going to complain about a project manager and governance issues.

She had "only considered the contractual issues and risks", it said, and not the risk of the worker making a general protections claim...