When does an accepted offer become real employment?
A graduate nurse who pushed back on her hours lost her offer, then lost her bid to call it a dismissal at the Fair Work Commission.
In a decision handed down on 30 April 2026, Deputy President Clancy dismissed a general protections application brought by Karen Ketelaar against Ramsay Health Care Australia Pty Limited, trading as Beleura Private Hospital. The case turned on a question many HR teams quietly worry about: what happens when a candidate accepts a job, things go sideways before day one, and the offer is pulled?
Ketelaar had been offered, and accepted, a graduate nursing position. But she never commenced employment with Ramsay. According to the decision, she made enquiries and expressed views about the conditions of the role, in particular a requirement to work at 0.8 full-time equivalent. On 7 November 2025, Ramsay told her it would not be proceeding with the offer. Ramsay's position was that no contract of employment was ever offered because Ketelaar had not agreed to the conditions of the role, including the 0.8 FTE requirement.
For close to two weeks, Ketelaar tried to change Ramsay's mind. The decision notes she "spent the ensuing period until 20 November attempting to persuade the Respondent otherwise," but the answer stayed the same. She lodged her application with the Fair Work Commission on 29 December 2025, alleging she had been dismissed in contravention of the general protections provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009.
Deputy President Clancy was not satisfied a dismissal had occurred. Because Ketelaar had been offered and accepted the position but never commenced employment, she could not have been dismissed. The decision also notes Ketelaar herself did not assert that she was an employee of Ramsay, or that she had been dismissed from employment. The Commission found her application did not meet the requirements of s.365 of the Act and that it had no jurisdiction to deal with it.
Even if a dismissal were assumed for argument's sake on 7 November 2025, the application was filed 31 days late. The Deputy President said any doubt about her status had been "dispelled by 20 November 2025, at which point she still had a further 8 days to make an application within time." Ketelaar pointed to the Christmas and New Year period limiting her access to advice, a lack of familiarity with the Commission's processes, and being denied help by the ANMF because she was not a member. None of those reasons amounted to exceptional circumstances.
The Deputy President accepted that Ketelaar had disputed the alleged dismissal during her dialogue with Ramsay and her approach to the union, which weighed in favour of an extension. Prejudice to Ramsay and fairness to others in similar positions were treated as neutral, as were the merits, which would depend on factual findings by a court after hearing the evidence. Weighed together, the factors did not clear the bar for an extension of time, and the application was dismissed.
The decision is a useful marker of where dismissal protections begin and end. An accepted offer is not the same as commenced employment. When pre-start conditions are still in dispute, clear written communication about what has and has not been agreed matters, as does careful documentation of the reasons an offer is withdrawn. Recruitment and onboarding teams, particularly those running graduate intake programs, may want to revisit how offer conditions such as FTE, rosters and start dates are confirmed before a candidate is told they have the job.
