Fair Work Australia, the national workplace relations tribunal, has upheld an international corporation's dismissal of a worker who fraudulently used his carer's leave to take a weekend off, advising that such an action could harm other employees by undermining the employer's trust-based "unlimited" leave policy.
A production worker at Nyrstar in Hobart, Tasmania initially sought annual leave for a weekend last September, but was refused on the basis that it would have left the operation short-staffed. He then sought carer's leave, with the support of a medical certificate providing that he needed time off to attend appointments with his daughter, who had been on crutches after an injury.
The company approved the leave and planned to cover the absence with a labour hire employee. However on hearing rumours that the worker's leave request wasn't authentic, management employed the services of an independent investigator who conducted surveillance on the employee, and returned with a report and DVD that showed he had travelled with his family to the Tamar Valley Resort, for the weekend in question.
The employee was confronted with the evidence and after having a chance to explain his actions, was eventually dismissed due to “his utilisation of carer's leave under false pretences” and that he had "consciously taken a decision to defraud the company".
Commissioner Deegan from Fair Work Australia took into account that the employee's misuse of his unlimited entitlement to leave, "could have the effect of bringing about a change in policy and lead to greater restrictions on the availability of leave for other employees in the future". "For this reason I think it is understandable that an employer treat very seriously any circumstances in which such entitlements are abused".
Nyrstar’s HR manager, Tim Wilson-Haffenden, told Fair Work Australia that the company provided a personal leave entitlement that included carers' leave. It was a "no debit/no credit" system, "in the sense that if an employee is sick, then providing they supply the appropriate documentation, they are entitled to paid sick leave".
Wilson-Haffenden advised that the system was treated with a fair degree of trust and that in the context of good relations between management and employees, there was no systematic abuse.
Commissioner Deegan said she was satisfied that the employee intended to go on the trip to northern Tasmania when he applied for the carer's leave.
As such, his use of the leave for that purpose, supported by the medical certificate claiming he had to take his daughter to "appointments" was "at no time a legitimate use of that leave", she said.
Consequently, the company had a valid reason for dismissing the worker based on the dishonest answers provided to Wilson-Haffenden.
Source: http://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/
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Today, due to the robust workplace legislation surrounding the Fair Work Act, organisations are struggling to accurately track leave for all their employees. Yet with the rise in Workplace lawsuits being brought up against organisations, it is more important than ever for management to accurately track and administer leave time.
Mitrefinch’s Time and Attendance System allows organisations to:
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- Eliminate administrative error and reduce admin time as employees can request leave and explain absences online while supervisors oversee anomalies and authorise or decline requests automatically
- Reduce the time required to manually administer federal and state leave laws by as much as 65%.
- Employees can check their own leave records and entitlements quickly and easily
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