Sacked for smirking? Concreter wins unfair dismissal case

A Melbourne concreter has won his unfair dismissal case, after his employer fired him for allegedly smirking during a reprimand. 

Fortunato Perri, who had worked for the concreting company for 15 years, was given a warning over a safety violation. Perri told Fair Work that, during the conversation, the general manager told him to "get that f**ken smile off your face," before informing him that he would be sacked.

The company argued that there was a breakdown in the working relationship; that the general manager didn't believe Perri's apology was sincere and that he did not appear to view the incident as serious. 

Fair Work commissioner David Gregory said that, in his opinion, there was no "sound, defensible or well-founded" reason for sacking Perri, who had previously had an extremely good safety record. Furthermore, the employer had not initially intended to sack Perri when the meeting was convened, and only did so impulsively due to a misunderstanding of body language. 

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