Gossip, rumours about relationship lead to mine employee being unfairly fired, reinstated, compensated

Seeking the benefit of being “financially better off” and having greater access to career advancement opportunities, a mine worker received nearly $40,000 in compensation and reinstatement after unfair dismissal.

Fair Work Commission commissioner Chris Simpson handed down his decision to grant Goonyella Riverside mine worker Karl Mouat $35,458.81 before tax and reinstatement to another position at the Saraji mine.

Mouat commenced with Operational Services (OS), a recruitment arm of the BHP group, on 18 September 2020 and was engaged as an operator at Goonyella Riverside mine until his termination on 9 April 2025.

Rumours spread

In a decision handed down by the commissioner, Mouat won an unfair dismissal claim against his employer after OS made allegations that he had engaged in misconduct, with Mouat claiming that employees behaved inappropriately towards his partner and himself.

The behaviour that Mouat claimed included alleged rumours being spread about him and his partner (who also worked at the mine), her ex-partner, her previous relationships, and the circulation of “revenge p- -n“ among colleagues.

Mouat’s employer alleged that he had behavioural issues, behaving in an “aggressive and intimidating manner” towards certain colleagues.

The commission found that the termination had procedural flaws, and hence Mouat’s employer did not have a valid reason to dismiss him, ruling the dismissal unfair. The commission continued with a remedy decision made on 24 December 2025.

Seeking reinstatement and compensation

Mouat said that reinstatement was an appropriate remedy because he was financially better off working for OS, including career advancement and that the other employment that he had obtained had erased five years of career progression, causing the need to “start all over again”. Due to the nature of the incidents occurring at his previous workplace at Goonyella Riverside mine, Mouat said that he would need to work at a different mine under OS MCAP if he were reinstated.

Mouat gave evidence that following his unfair dismissal at OS MCAP on 9 April 2025, he was unemployed until 14 June 2025.

He gave evidence that he found employment at Middlemount with FES Coal Pty Ltd from 15 June 2025 to 28 June 2025 and resigned from this role because he obtained employment at Carmichael mine with M People Pty Ltd T/A Adani Mackellar.

He submitted to the court that he was unemployed again from 29 June 2025 to 9 July 2025.

From 10 July 2025 to 19 October 2025, Mouat stated that he began his new role as operator at Carmichael mine. He submitted that he resigned from this role because he did not enjoy working here.

OS MCAP claimed that its workforce had no capacity to provide him a role for operational reasons; however, the commission found that since OS MCAP has a “reasonably large workforce”, said that it did not believe that the operational reasons argument is “sufficiently strong to weigh heavily against an order for reinstatement”.

Thus, the commission found reinstatement appropriate, ordering that OS MCAP provide Mouat an alternative role at the Saraji mine as a return to the Goonyella Riverside mine “would place him back in the same workplace where the evidence has established that the Applicant had been upset by rumours and gossip about his partner and certain employees who were involved in allegations concerning those matters remain employed at Goonyella”.

Mouat claimed that in addition to reinstatement, he was entitled to a compensation remedy for the six months since his unfair dismissal by his former employer for lost wages.

Commissioner Simpson ordered that OS MCAP pay him $35,458.81 before tax in compensation for remuneration lost between 9 April and 8 October 2025.

The case citation: Karl Mouat v OS MCAP Pty Ltd (U2025/5323).