The depot manager at an Australian courier company was unfairly sacked after he was accused of being responsible for the breach of a worldwide embargo on the J.K. Rowling book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Fair Work Commission has found.
The commission heard that XL Express Pty Ltd sacked the depot manager for serious misconduct last November when he was told that the delivery of embargoed J.K. Rowling books a day early had damaged the company's reputation.
XL Express blamed the Brisbane depot manager for the embargo breach, a claim he denied.
Describing the delivery of embargoed freight as "the pinnacle of its operations", the company said a November 17, 2016 embargo on the J.K. Rowling novel was breached on November 16.
Under cross-examination, the company agreed it had not lost its contract with the book distributor and had not been financially penalised for the embargo breach.
It claimed a forklift driver removed the embargo consignment from the embargo area and that another staff member removed the consignment note from an embargo file. The depot manager was accused of failing to ensure staff followed set procedures for embargo releases.
The depot manager told the Fair Work Commission that the error with the sorting and handling of the consignment note happened on November 15 when he was on leave.
He said he was unaware that someone had "accessed his office, gained access to the box where the embargo labels were kept and also retrieved the con-note from the embargo con-notes and had labelled the freight".
He said no fewer than six people had taken these actions on the day he was absent from the depot.
The commission judgment said the depot manager claimed the error that resulted in the embargo breach on November 16 "was not through any fault on his part".
The depot manager, who had been employed from May 2008 until late November last year, was dismissed on the grounds of serious misconduct after a meeting in which he was also accused of workplace bullying. He said it was the first time the allegations had been put to him. He was also accused of wrongly claiming he had received training in the company's anti-bullying procedures.
Fair Work Commission deputy president Ingrid Asbury's judgment said XL Express had no documents and called no evidence to support the bullying allegations.
The depot manager told the commission he was not paid his long service leave entitlements because his job was terminated for misconduct.
In finding the dismissal was unfair, Deputy President Asbury ordered XL Express to pay the sacked employee $48,432 in wages, less tax and $6555 in superannuation contributions.
The commission found that although it was not a valid reason for his dismissal, the depot manager's responsibility for depot operations "meant that he had a role in the series of events that led to the embargo breach".
It said the dismissal was harsh because it was disproportionate to the misconduct in relation to the embargo breach.
