Former employee tales WorkSafe ACT to court alleging he was sacked after complaining about regulators own workplace culture

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A former employee of Canberra’s work health and safety watchdog alleges he was sacked from the organisation after complaining about its own workplace culture. The man has taken ‘WorkSafe Act’ to court where the organisation has denied his claims.

Transcript

00:0039-year-old Leith Dawes started at WorkSafe ACT as an inspector in March last year.

00:09In court documents he claims he was repeatedly bullied and harassed, including one instance

00:14when he says a colleague intentionally drove away from him on a construction site before

00:19laughing at him.

00:21Mr Dawes raised the issues in May last year in an email to senior WorkSafe personnel,

00:27including the Work Health and Safety Commissioner Jacqueline Aegis.

00:30Several days later he received a probationary report recommending his employment be terminated

00:36for reasons Mr Dawes says he hadn't previously been made aware of.

00:40He was officially sacked more than two months later.

00:43The court documents also reveal Mr Dawes experienced a psychological breakdown after the review

00:49and was hospitalised for three weeks.

00:52The Commissioner's Office has argued Mr Dawes was sacked for serious misconduct and that

00:57it warned him numerous times about how he interacted with other staff.

01:02It's also rejected the claim his experiences amount to workplace bullying and said it had

01:08no evidence to confirm he had a psychological breakdown.

01:12The case is set to go to mediation later this month.

01:15If that fails, it could be headed to the Federal Circuit Court for a hearing.

01:22For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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