By Mike Toten Freelance Writer

 An HR employee who behaved aggressively towards co-workers and who sent confidential employer information to his own email address was justifiably dismissed. The employer’s allegations were clearly established, and it handled the dismissal process fairly and correctly. 

 

Facts of case 

The employer had received complaints about the employee, an HR recruitment partner, regarding rude and unprofessional behaviour towards others that included raising his voice.  They arranged a meeting with him, during which he raised his voice and told the Finance Director to “sit down, I haven’t finished speaking yet”.   

At a later meeting with the HR Director, he behaved in similar fashion, to the extent that nearby employees intervened to check if the HR Director was OK. When challenged, the employee replied “I speak to everyone this way...it’s who I am”. 

The employer then warned him that a continuation of his aggressive conduct could result in dismissal. The conduct included shouting, swearing, talking over people, intimidating and disrespecting others, and arm-waving. The employer claimed he had been insubordinate and breached its bullying and harassment policy. The employee replied that he in turn felt bullied and harassed by the way he was treated. He then lodged complaints with the Law Society of NSW and to senior management of both the employer and its imminent merger partner. For that reason, the employer decided against taking disciplinary action at that stage. 

Then, over about two months, the employee sent personal confidential information about both the business and 93 other employees to his personal email address. This was in breach of the employer’s confidentiality policy, which the employee admitted he had received training in. When the employer discovered this, it told the employee not to come to work pending an investigation. The employee claimed he only sent the emails in the early stages of his employment while his work email was being set up, and that the contents were related to his work, but the employer claimed that he should have sought prior authorisation before sending them. He also claimed that the employer had sent emails to his home email address, but this also was only while the work address was being set up and did not occur after that. 

The employee failed to attend meetings despite several reschedules, sometimes relying on medical certificates and eventually a workers’ compensation claim. Finally he attended a meeting after about four months and claimed that his work email did not work for him at home and he had been allowed to use his personal email account instead.  

The employer followed a “show cause” process, warning him that he could be dismissed, but pending his response first, but after receiving it then dismissed him for serious misconduct. It claimed that working in the HR Department required employees to follow the utmost confidentiality.  

 

Decision 

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) upheld the dismissal, noting that the employee had a weak case for the following reasons: 

  •  An HR professional should have understood the importance of confidentiality and seeking authorisation. 
  • The employer had informed him of the allegations of misconduct in sufficient detail. 
  • The employer waited about four months before dismissing him, refuting his claim that it dismissed him without giving him the opportunity to reply to allegations, or “show cause”. 
  • He had sent the emails at around the same time the employer made allegations of misbehaviour against him. 
  • His previous work history was “not unblemished”. 

 

What this means for employers 

This case is an example of an employer successfully defending a claim of unfair dismissal because it had followed a procedurally fair process before dismissing the employee. 

 

Read the judgment 

Mr Tablo Ary v Bollore Logistics Australia Pty Ltd [2025] FWC 586 (1 May 2025)