Employee who hosted farewell party loses unfair dismissal claim

A first response provider who claimed he was fired after announcing his new job has had his unfair dismissal quashed by the Fair Work Commission.

Earlier this month, the Fair Work Commission’s full bench rejected Ethan Shea’s appeal of a May 2025 decision that found he was not unfairly dismissed.

The appeal was found not to be of public interest.

Commencing with CareFlight Limited in October 2022 as a full-time ground support officer, Shea went on to occupy various roles and was working as a casual logistics coordinator at the time of his June 2024 dismissal.

In his unfair dismissal application, Shea submitted he was dismissed by CareFlight on 2 January 2025, a few days after he revealed he had attained a full-time role as a dispatcher with rival, St John Ambulance.

Following this disclosure, Shea was called into a meeting with CareFlight leadership on 2 January 2025 about a possible conflict of interest.

In the following days, CareFlight requested that Shea provide further details about his employment for approval from the company’s chief executive.

Shea formed the belief that CareFlight had the intention to terminate him as they commenced an “offboarding process”, which consisted of “removing him from the roster, forcing him to give up shifts he was rostered to perform, and removing his access to email, the rostering system and the intranet”.

CareFlight objected to this, submitting that this was relevant for an operational conflict-of-interest review and that Shea remained a casual employee of the company.

In his 22 May 2025 decision, commissioner Bernie Riordan was satisfied that Shea was not dismissed as he was not issued a termination letter and remained a casual employee at CareFlight.

Following the 22 May decision, Shea launched an appeal before a full bench comprising vice president Ingrid Asbury, deputy president Bryce Cross, and deputy president Tony Slevin, asserting “significant errors of fact and errors of law” in CareFlight’s submissions in the 22 May 2025 decision.

Shea maintained that CareFlight had terminated him on 2 January 2025 and that further correspondence showed an attempt by CareFlight to get a written resignation letter from him.

Despite claiming that he did not resign from his role, the full bench found that he had “disseminated the invitation to his farewell function well before the deadlines by which he requested a response to the queries about the status of his employment”, the full bench found.

The commission found that the commissioner Riordan’s 22 May 2025 decision did not “manifest an injustice, or that the result is counterintuitive or unjust”.

Upon consideration of Shea’s grounds of appeal, the full bench was not satisfied that the appeal would be in public interest, rejecting his application.

The case citation: Mr Ethan Shea v CareFlight Limited (U2025/672).