A cautionary tale of quick decision and bad temper - avoiding adverse action claims

The suspension of overseas postings was adverse action as it was a detrimental alteration to the engineer's position.
Australia Employment and HR

Background

A quick decision to suspend all international postings of licensed aircraft engineers and a short-tempered phone-call has resulted in a costly adverse action claim for Qantas.

After returning from a six week overseas posting to Narita, the engineer made a claim for time off in lieu and payment for additional hours worked while he was in Narita.

After the claim for additional payment was initially rejected, the engineer invoked the dispute resolution clause of his enterprise agreement.

The next day, Qantas suspended all overseas postings of Brisbane based engineers indefinitely. Qantas later lifted the ban after a month.

The Proceedings

The Court held that the suspension of the overseas postings was adverse action as it was a detrimental alteration to the engineer's position.

A Qantas senior manager was also criticised for intimidating the engineer during a phone call, during which he was found to have been short-tempered and tried to coerce the engineer into dropping his claim.

The Court found that the senior manager said that 'the guys who accept their conditions....are the ones who get asked to go away next time.'

Key lessons for employers

This decision highlights the broad and far-reaching grasp of the adverse action, or general protections, provisions of the Fair Work Act. Employers need to be aware that the concept of 'detriment', in the context of the adverse action provisions, extends extremely far.

Employers should avoid making knee-jerk decisions in response to claims, complaints and disputes and ensure that managers and employees who are tasked with handling these complaints are well trained in the adverse action provisions to ensure that 'heat of the moment' comments or decisions don't come back to bite the business.

Whilst difficult circumstances can lead to a heated exchange of words, it is important that managers keep control and refrain from commenting until things have cooled to allow for a more considered response to be made.

For more information, please contact;

Sydney
Mark Sant P +61 2 9931 4744 E msant@nsw.gadens.com.au
Stephanie Nicol P +61 2 9931 4855 E snicol@nsw.gadens.com.au
Brisbane
John-Anthony Hodgens P +61 7 3231 1568 E jhodgens@qld.gadens.com.au

This report does not comprise legal advice and neither Gadens Lawyers nor the authors accept any responsibility for it.

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