Enquiring of your Entitlements
The Fair Work Act provides that an employee is entitled to make a complaint or enquiry about their employment. It also provides that an employee should not be treated adversely because they made a complaint or enquiry about their employment.
A recent decision handed down by the Federal Circuit Court has identified that the court is willing to impose hefty penalties on employers (and individual directors) for treating an employee adversely after the employee made a complaint about his wages. In the case of Fair Work Ombudsman -v- Windaroo Medical Surgery Pty Ltd & Ors [2016] FCCA2505 (28 September 2016), Judge Jarrett penalised the Surgery and two of its directors because:
1. they threatened to stop paying a Doctor who had complained to the FWO about not being paid;
2. they did stop paying him until the Doctor resigned a few months later.
The Surgery and its Directors were collectively penalised over $50,000 for their involvement in the poor treatment of their employed Doctor.
The message here is that, as an employee, you have the right to complain to your employer about your workplace entitlements. If you suffer a loss because of that complaint, then the employer will be taken to have breached certain provisions of the Fair Work Act and you are likely to be entitled to compensation.
If you think that this has happened to you, then please give us a call.
AGL Team
Lawyers for Employees – specialising in unfair dismissal claims
