A child care worker summarily dismissed after attending work smelling of alcohol may have successfully challenged her dismissal if not for the previous warning she had received and the fact that she worked with young children.
FWA Senior Deputy President Richards said the failure of the child care centre to stand the worker down and require her to attend to a doctor for a blood alcohol test before she could return to her duties might have otherwise led him to determine there had not been a valid reason for her summary dismissal.
He said that employers cannot “rely solely on an apparent breach” of drug and alcohol policy or guidelines to provide a valid reason for dismissing an employee.
“In other circumstances an employer might stand down an employee on an indefinite basis and not allow a resumption of work until a medical certificate indicating the employee was fit in all respects to resume the ordinary duties was provided. This approach has much to commend in the ordinary case.”
However, it was determined that this was not an ordinary case, as the worker had been warned two months earlier after attending to work in a similar state that her employment may be jeopardised by a further occurrence. Further, she was required to look after young children. These particular circumstances, he said, meant that the employer had a valid reason for the dismissal.
FWA determined that worker had “breached the employer’s confidence by her own admission, she had done so on the basis of full knowledge of the implications, and she had presented to her employer a risk that it could not reasonably manage” without removing her from the child care environment.