An employee has won his unfair dismissal case after his manager told him in the heat of an argument not to bother coming back to work on Monday.
He was employed as a driver for a small family business . He had come into work whilst on annual leave to set up a new truck. He was resentful about being called into work and having his annual leave disrupted which sparked an argument with his manager.
The Fair Work Commission heard that the interaction between the employer and the employee went as follows:
The employer stated: “Get out of the yard and don’t bother coming back on Monday.”
The employee took this as a dismissal and left the workplace. The employer made no attempts to contact the employee and a few week later sent him his termination certificate.
The employee claimed unfair dismissal, whilst his employer argued that he resigned.
The Fair Work Commission found that there was a total failure to adopt any sort of fair procedure. The dismissal was unfair because the employer failed to hold a disciplinary meeting and the employee did not have the opportunity to argue his case.