Woolies bum crack case sparks lashing from employer group

A snide comment about a Woolies employee’s backside is a textbook example of the speculative, low-merit and AI-generated slop clogging up the Fair Work Commission, an employer association has complained.

Deputy president Alan Colman of the Fair Work Commission was highly critical of Woolworths employee Anthony Davitkov for wasting time by bringing an unmeritorious claim about his bum crack.

According to the brief decision, Davitkov had his feelings hurt by a colleague who pointed out his “bottom was protruding from his trousers” and suggested “in rude terms” that he cover up.

Davitkov lodged an unfair dismissal application, but there was never any dismissal, with the commission clarifying that Davitkov continued to work shifts before he just stopped turning up to work.

“It was evidently a speculative claim made in pursuit of a monetary settlement that would spare Woolworths the nuisance of defending it.

“Unmeritorious claimants have little to lose. This is unfair to respondents who have no case to answer. It is unfair to applicants with cases of substance waiting their turn to be heard,” Colman said.

Colman said the Fair Work Act allows costs to be ordered in some cases, “but very often there are no compensable costs, only wasted time”.

“There is no effective disincentive for speculative claims, and so they come, in great numbers, compounding the commission’s burgeoning caseload,” Colman said.

The Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA) called for reform to the unfair dismissal and general protections claim system to block speculative, low-merit and AI-generated slop from impacting the Fair Work Commission.

AREEA chief executive Steve Knott AM said the $89.70 filing fee, which is often waived, should be increased to $500. Any waiver should also face “far stricter scrutiny”, the CEO added.

“When it costs just $89.70 to file an unfair dismissal application and nearly 40 per cent of applicants don’t even pay that because the fee is waived, there is virtually no downside to having a crack.

“At the same time, employers are forced to spend thousands, and often tens of thousands, defending claims that should never have made it through the front door,” Knott said.

Knott said the rapid rise of generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, has made the problem materially worse by lowering the effort required to produce applications, submissions, and statements.

The Fair Work Commission has also acknowledged an “unprecedented generative artificial intelligence” increase in its applications and litigation.

“Access to justice should never mean open season on employers.

“The Fair Work system urgently needs stronger filtering mechanisms, stronger cost consequences, and real deterrents against speculative claims before confidence in the system deteriorates further,” Knott said.

Citation: Anthony Davitkov v Woolworths Group Limited – [2026] FWC 1655.

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