$36k awarded to ex-dnata employee in unfair dismissal case

The Fair Work Commission has awarded a Perth university student more than $36,000 in unfair dismissal proceedings brought against air services provider dnata.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in HR Leader’s sister brand, Australian Aviation.

As reported by The Australian, 21-year-old Courtney Sewell said she felt forced to resign from her part-time work for Emirates with dnata at Perth Airport earlier this year after a sexual harassment complaint against a male co-worker was closed with no disciplinary action.

In her complaint to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), Sewell said she felt she had to resign because of a “course of conduct engaged in by her employer”. According to Sewell, the co-worker had told her she should wear a “hijab and a short miniskirt” to a work event, saying the miniskirt would “look really good on her”.

“I kept saying ‘no I’m not wearing that’ and he was repeatedly asking me,” she told the FWC in her statement.

“This made me so uncomfortable that I had to say I was going to check on the printer (in another office) so went down there for a few minutes.”

Though Sewell reported the alleged incident on 9 March at the encouragement of a female colleague, she was told 11 days later that the investigation would be closed as her claims could not be substantiated and that the male co-worker in question would return in April.

She said that after learning from dnata that they would not be rostered at different days or times for fear of “discrimination” against the male employee, she felt abandoned by her employer, and submitted her resignation, which took effect in May.

Abbey Beaumont, deputy president of the FWC, awarded her $36,468.39 – or the equivalent of six months’ part-time salary – saying dnata “failed to positively demonstrate that it afforded equivalence in treatment” between her and the male employee, as while he had received an outcome letter in writing, she did not until she requested one.

In her judgment, Beaumont also questioned how dnata had handled the sexual harassment complaint, noting that the company had not interviewed two employees that Sewell had spoken to about the alleged incident.

“There will often be circumstances where an alleged interaction occurs between two employees in the absence of a witness or overt recording,” she said.

“That does not in turn mean that allegations are unable to be substantiated unless the evidence of those two employees align.

“It may or may not have been the case that the evidence of the two employees had a bearing on the findings that were ultimately arrived at by dnata. However, that remains unknown given the failure of dnata to interview the two.”

The news comes a month after dnata workers at Perth Airport took industrial action against the company, claiming poor pay and working conditions.