Log in or become a subscriber

Deciding to dismiss an employee within hours of receiving her workplace complaint wasn't unlawful adverse action, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled.

The decision-maker spent 90 minutes drafting an email that she sent two hours after the complaint, about the employee's conduct and performance, and Judge Peter Papadopoulos accepted this was "powerful contemporaneous evidence" of her state of mind at the time.

The employee started working as an executive assistant to the Freedom of Information Commissioner, in the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), in May 2024. She claimed she was dismissed three months later for exercising her workplace rights, specifically for complaining about a colleague and proposing to make a stop-bullying application.

She told the Court that during June and July, she complained about: her interactions with the colleague (a senior EA); how aspects of her work were being managed; and her reporting arrangements...