Industrial Relations - Unfair Dismissal Laws - At what point can the line be drawn?
Employers today face a tangled web of dilemmas – legislation for superannuation guarantee, Pay As You Go Withholding, legislation for Occupational Health and Safety, unfair dismissal laws, Fair Work Australia requirements. To ensure compliance with these laws, employers must consistently familiarise themselves with the changes and updates of the law, with little or no guidance. Employers are placed in a position of professional judgement to abide by these laws – and should be entitled to enforce them.
The recent decision by the tribunal to reinstate a NSW employee based on emotional factors has caused confusion throughout the business world. Rather than focus on the facts presented, a decision was made based on the employees long service period, his family situation and the assumption that he would find it difficult to re-enter the workforce given his lack of education and other work experience. The reality was that Paul Quinlivan repeatedly disobeyed safety instructions, which may have caused his employer to face prosecution for breaching the Occupational Health and Safety guidelines. Had an accident occurred, the employer would have faced ramifications – not the employee Paul, who was not following orders from his manager.
So at what point can an employer draw the line when faced with employees who disobey instructions and under perform? Must they now consider the employees personal life as well as the extensive list of legislations and requirements? How is a business expected to prosper in the economy if laws prevent them from developing a team around them to enable them to? Has unfair dismissal laws gone so far that employees can expect to show up to work and not adhere to their employers and managers wishes? Somewhere along the line, the balance between enforcing employees’ rights and allowing employers to make professional judgements about their business has been lost. Let’s hope that in the future, faith is restored in our employers to do the right thing, and make the correct decisions, so that the tribunals need not interfere.