‘Lazy motherf--ker’: Dental technician loses misconduct appeal after calling co-workers vile nicknames

A Gold Coast dental technician with over 30 years of service has been found to have made inappropriate physical contact with a co-worker and subjected her to verbal abuse, hurling shocking insults like “lazy motherf--ker”, “c---stable”, and “lazy bitch”.

A Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service employee has been found, on the balance of probabilities, to have made inappropriate physical contact with a co-worker and verbally abused her on two separate occasions.

A 30-year Queensland Health dental technician, Peter Spence, appealed an August 2024 disciplinary finding to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, which had been issued by Queensland Health over those two misconduct allegations.

However, earlier this month, industrial commissioner Roslyn D.H. McLennan upheld the disciplinary findings, noting a disturbing pattern of escalating aggressive behaviour by Spence towards his colleague.

At the time of the incidents, Spence and his colleague worked together in the Oral Health Laboratory at the Gold Coast Hospital, where, according to the commissioner, their relationship had gradually “soured over time”.

The first allegation revolved around an incident on 10 January 2024, in which both parties claimed they had “intentionally bumped” into each other, followed the next day by a further allegation of another bump.

However, during the second altercation, the colleague alleged that Spence uttered words to the effect of “you are stupid” and/or “your turn is coming”.

While Spence claimed the words were meant “by way of chiding [the colleague] about the ‘intentional bumping’ the previous day”, McLennan disagreed, describing the remark as “a veiled threat”.

“The natural response in the event of a genuine accident, whether you liked the person you bumped into or not, would be to offer words such as ‘excuse me’, ‘I beg your pardon’, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there’ or similar – not to feign that you did not know what they were referring to by saying ‘what?’” McLennan said.

Accordingly, the commission found that Spence had “deliberately” walked into his colleague, describing the behaviour as “inappropriate” and concluding that it “meets the threshold for misconduct”.

The second allegation involved repeated verbal abuse, with Queensland Health’s 5 March disciplinary finding stating that Spence had called his colleague words to the effect of “lazy motherf--ker”, “c---stable”, and “lazy bitch”.

While six co-workers confirmed hearing the abusive language in the workplace, Spence denied using the offensive words, telling investigators that he had called the colleague “constable” as a reference to her husband’s role as a police officer.

The commission found that, in relation to this allegation, Spence had breached the Code of Conduct for the Queensland Public Service, with his behaviour “contravened, without reasonable excuse, a relevant standard of conduct in a way that is sufficiently serious to warrant disciplinary action”.

Following a formal complaint lodged on 11 March 2024, Spence was suspended with pay on 20 March 2024, pending the outcome of the investigation.

The external investigation concluded three months later, and on 28 August 2024, the disciplinary finding decision determined that the two allegations against Spence were “substantiated on the balance of probability”, resulting in a recommendation for his termination.

Spence appealed the decision, arguing that the investigator “made errors” in the report and that his own evidence was “not given sufficient consideration”.

However, the commission dismissed Spence’s appeal, noting that the decision demonstrated “very careful attention” to his responses to the allegations and provided “detailed reasoning” explaining why the allegations were upheld.