Compensation for worker fired over porn distribution

An employee was granted nearly $7,000 in compensation for procedural unfairness after he was terminated for serious misconduct, including driving offences on the job and sharing pornographic material with his colleagues.

A driver at a waste collection business was terminated after his employer claimed to have caught him leaving pornographic material in the trays of other drivers in the company’s staff area in early 2025, as well as supposedly speeding, and texting while driving the company vehicle in late 2025.

The employee was dismissed in November 2025 for serious misconduct and behaviour, which his employer stated was not in the best interests of the business and raised significant concerns about his conduct’s breach of workplace safety, compliance with company policies, and lack of overall professionalism.

In her March 2026 decision, Fair Work commissioner Oanh Thi Tran ruled the dismissal procedurally unfair, finding that the employee’s boss had not provided any written warning before the summary dismissal in late 2025.

The commissioner ordered the employer to pay its driver $6,676.16 before tax in compensation, inclusive of superannuation.

The employee commenced employment with Bin Boy Environmental as a driver in February 2023. In May 2024, the employee resigned before being re-employed in the same month.

Bin Boy submitted that on 10 March 2025, it issued the driver a formal written warning for leaving pornographic materials in the personal trays of drivers in the staff area.

Despite this claim, the employee gave evidence that he had not received the written warning but had been told via text message in early March, after which he removed the material from the trays.

Following his driving offences, the driver was put on an extended good behaviour requirement period, from 7 August 2025 to 6 August 2026.

During this time, he incurred two speeding fines while driving company vehicles and subsequently had his license suspended. Bin Boy received infringement notices for both occasions.

On 11 October 2025, Bin Boy sent the driver a text containing a traffic safety camera photo of him texting while driving. In this text, his employer wrote, “Don’t text and drive”, to which the driver responded with: “What are you gonna do, sack me?”

On 13 November 2025, the driver was called into a meeting after he finished work for the day and was handed a letter of termination, which was effective immediately. The driver was asked to read the letter, return his key, and leave the workplace.

Although the commission agreed that the driver’s dismissal for conduct relating to pornographic material, speeding, and texting while driving warranted dismissal, it accepted the employee’s evidence that he had not received any written warnings before receiving the 13 November 2025 termination letter.

Bin Boy gave evidence that it had provided the driver with formal written warnings following various allegations of misconduct, which it provided to the court; however, the commission expressed concern about the potential fabrication of these warnings.

It noted that although Bin Boy had produced these warnings with their response materials to the commission, it did not file any witness statements from the signatories of the warnings, nor did any of these signatories attend the hearing.

Tran ruled that if the driver had been provided the chance to improve by providing warnings, he would have remained in employment for a further four weeks.

Upon consideration of all evidence, Tran approved the driver’s unfair dismissal application, finding that Bin Boy failed to provide him procedural fairness before dismissing him and ordered his employer to pay him $6,676.16 before tax for lost wages.