HSR Transport found to have not consulted appropriately ahead of the single role redundancy last year.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has upheld a claim of unfair dismissal from a former dolly mechanic with Adelaide-based HSR Transport.
Richard Bassanese worked with the company, which offers interstate transport services, for four and a half years before being dismissed on September 29 last year. His role included servicing, maintaining and repairing HSR’s fleet of non-powered dollies.
The dismissal took place on the day Bassanese returned to work after taking almost five weeks’ accumulated annual leave at the company’s direction.
Bassanese had also provided the first formal notification of two injuries sustained prior to the annual leave that required him to undertake only light duties during his remaining recovery.
The company argued the dismissal was a case of genuine redundancy.
It says it lost freight contracts – amounting to 10 per cent of its revenue – in 2013 and 2014, along with an investment in a new fleet of convertor dollies, meaning there was not enough work for both Bassanese and his colleague.
FWC deputy president Karen Bartel says this may have been true, but ruled there had been no effort to consult with Bassanese, as required under the Road Transport and Distribution Award that applied to HSR Transport.
Bartel found the dismissal was also “harsh, unjust or unreasonable”.
“Regardless of the employer’s understanding of the consultation requirements of the relevant award, it is difficult to understand how, in the circumstances that existed, the employer could be of the view that the immediate dismissal of the applicant was appropriate,” Bartel says.
“(Bassanese) had four years’ service, a sound performance record and was being terminated for reasons outside of his control.”
A decision on an appropriate remedy will be made at a later date, but Bartell says re-employment is not appropriate.