A cautionary tale of quick decision and bad temper - avoiding adverse action claims

Background

A quick decision to suspend all international postings of licensed aircraft engineers and a short-tempered phone-call has resulted in a costly adverse action claim for Qantas.

After returning from a six week overseas posting to Narita, the engineer made a claim for time off in lieu and payment for additional hours worked while he was in Narita.

After the claim for additional payment was initially rejected, the engineer invoked the dispute resolution clause of his enterprise agreement.

The next day, Qantas suspended all overseas postings of Brisbane based engineers indefinitely. Qantas later lifted the ban after a month.

The Proceedings

The Court held that the suspension of the overseas postings was adverse action as it was a detrimental alteration to the engineer's position.