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An employee's decision to physically restrain a customer breached his employer's code of conduct and gave it a valid reason to dismiss him, but the Fair Work Commission has found his sacking was nonetheless harsh.

Deputy President Judith Wright said it was "plain" that the employer's policies applied to the incident, despite the employee's "genuine belief" that he wasn't breaching them, but she found that sacking him after an unblemished 10-year tenure was unfair.

The casual employee told the Commission that in December 2025 he suspected two customers were stealing from the Pyrmont Coles where he worked. He said he was about to take a break when he then saw them enter the adjacent Liquorland store.

He followed the suspected shoplifters into Liquorland and asked them to stop stealing, before physically restraining one of the teen girls for just over two minutes while another worker called the police...