Childcare worker found unfairly dismissed
The applicant, who was employed as an educator at a childcare centre in Tahmoor, filed an unfair dismissal application in September 2020.
Her employer, the respondent, failed to attend the first two Conferences. The Commission made several attempts to contact the respondent by phone and email, during which it re-confirmed her email address and placed her on notice for ignoring the application thus far.
The respondent failed to attend the Hearing. Given numerous correspondence was sent via email and to the respondent’s postal address, the Commission was satisfied that the respondent was aware of the application and had chosen to ignore it.
With this, the Commission was forced to consider the application only on the uncontested evidence provided by the applicant.
As an educator, the applicant was responsible for the supervision of a group of children. On 3 September, the applicant took her group of children from one room of the respondent’s premises to another room.
Upon arrival in the second room, the applicant passed supervision of the children on to other educators. The applicant left the room and, as her shift had ended, signed out and left the centre.
Unbeknownst to the applicant, a child that had been in her care had exited the second room behind her. The child had then exited a gate to the premises that was left open by a parent.
Another staff member noticed and retrieved the unharmed child from outside the gate. The next morning, the applicant’s employment was terminated.
The applicant asserted that it was common practice for educators to be relinquished of responsibility once they had transported the children they were supervising to another educator.
The Commission considered the definition of a “valid reason”, finding the meaning of “valid” to be well founded, applicable, sound and defensible.
As no contrary evidence was put to the Commission, it accepted the applicant’s assertion that, at the time of the incident, the child was under the supervision of another educator. With this, it found no valid reason for the dismissal.
Compensation of $1,988.13 was ordered to the applicant.
Key Takeaways:
- Employers who are involved in an unfair dismissal suit must engage with the application
- Failure to respond to unfair dismissal allegations are likely to have adverse effects on those involved
