Senior official barred from appeal cases over conduct
The head of the Fair Work Commission has told the Morrison government that it should consider sacking a Coalition appointee who described COVID-19 vaccine mandates as “medical apartheid” if she misused her office again.
Fair Work Commission President Justice Iain Ross has given a final warning to deputy president Lyndall Dean, as well as barring her from appeals cases due to her conduct, according to a report by The Australian Financial Review.
Dean, who was appointed to the commission in 2016 by Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash, went on a tirade against vaccine mandates earlier this year in a dissenting decision on employers’ right to compel employees to get the jab. According to the commission’s summary of Ross’ letter to Dean in response to her decision, Ross told her that her conduct constituted a “misuse of her statutory office.”
Ross advised both Dean and Cash that “if misconduct of this nature was repeated, then consideration would need to be given to the deputy president’s continuing suitability to hold office as a member of the commission.”
The removal of an appointee from the commission is very rare, and can only be done through a vote by Parliament, AFR reported.
A spokesperson for Cash said that Ross had taken “appropriate action” and that the issue was being handled by the “independent Fair Work Commission.”
In his letter, Ross said that Dean had violated basic principles of quasi-judicial decision-making, including “criticising government policy and doing so in highly inflammatory terms.” Ross said Dean also made declarations on legal and other issues that the commission had no jurisdiction over, were irrelevant to the dispute in question and not based on any evidence in the case, AFR reported.
Ross warned Dean that while she was entitled to her personal views, “as a member of the commission [she] is constrained from entering into the public debate about those matters and must not use her office … to publicise her personal views, however strongly held.”
Ross has instructed Dean to attend professional conduct and responsibilities training and barred her from participating in any further full-bench matters, at least until that training is completed, AFR reported. Dean has also been banned from dealing with workplace vaccination disputes on the grounds of bias.
