Palmer v Forrest Personnel Inc [2016] WAIRC 866: Employee awarded compensation for unfair dismissal

In the case of Palmer v Forrest Personnel Inc [2016] WAIRC 866 (4 November 2016), Commissioner Emmanuel found that an employee was unfairly dismissed because her employment was terminated without reason and the employer’s behaviour towards her was particularly harsh and unfair.

Despite her period of faithful service as a high performing senior employee, she received aggressive, authoritarian emails, her mental health and professionalism were questioned without reasonable basis and she was isolated from the workplace before being unfairly dismissed.

Background

Ms Palmer was employed as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Forrest Personnel Inc (Forrest Personnel) in March 2013. When the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) resigned in October 2014, Ms Palmer was asked to act as CEO. This acting arrangement was extended several times before Forrest Personnel began its recruitment process for the CEO position.

Ms Palmer was not successful in her application and Mr Sullivan was appointed CEO of the organisation. Three weeks later, Mr Sullivan restructured Forrest Personnel and made Ms Palmer’s COO position redundant.

The Employee’s Claim

The Applicant brought her claim under s 29(1)(b)(i) of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA), claiming that she was unfairly dismissed and her position was not made redundant. Instead her position was renamed General Manager Services and its salary was reduced. Ms Palmer says Forrest Personnel did not consult her and it did not offer her any alternative positions. She says she would have accepted an alternative position.

Forrest Personnel says it did not unfairly dismiss Ms Palmer as it had made Ms Palmer’s COO position redundant after consulting with her and Ms Palmer was not interested in any alternative positions.

Reaction from the Employer

The Employer argued that the dismissal was a genuine redundancy. However, the Commission found that the employer could not rely on this as a valid reason for dismissal because it did not consult with the employee.

It did not warn the employee that she may be dismissed and, on the day of her dismissal, the employer simply informed her that her position was redundant and told her there were no alternative positions available.

The Findings

Commissioner Emmanuel found in favour of the employee and that the unfair dismissal caused the employee to lose 58 weeks’ pay [para 378 of the judgment]. 

As this exceeded the statutory cap, she was awarded the maximum amount of six months’ compensation.Although the Commission accepted that the employee suffered injury, there was not enough evidence about injury to make a finding and, in any event, any finding about injury would not have increased the amount of compensation awarded.

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Employee awarded $77,930.84 for unfair dismissal - WA IRC News

Palmer v Forrest Personnel Inc [2016] WAIRC 00866 (4 November 2016)