In July 2007 the employee commenced employment with Visy Pulp
and Paper (Visy) as a people relations advisor.
Under her contract of employment the employee was required to
complete a six month probationary period. Towards the end of 2007
Visy had a number of concerns about the employee's work
performance, which included a failure by the employee to conduct an
investigation into a complaint of harassment. As a result of these
problems Visy decided to dismiss the employee.
In late December 2007 Visy sent an email to the employee
requesting that she attend a meeting on 31 December 2007 for the
purpose of reviewing her employment, if she was not on annual
leave, or otherwise 2 January 2008. It was at this meeting that
Visy intended to dismiss the employee. By reply email the employee
told Visy that she could not attend the meeting on 31 December 2007
because she would be on leave, but she could attend it on 2 January
2008 when she returned to work. When the meeting took
