CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- An Australian worker who was fired for safety breaches must be rehired and compensated because he has little education and poor job prospects, officials said.
Fair Work Australia, the country's "industrial umpire," agreed the New South Wales mill worker was guilty of "relatively serious conduct" but said his firing was unjustified because he was a long-time employee and a poorly educated middle-aged family man, The Australian reported Thursday.
The ruling sends the wrong message, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.
"Here we have an employee repeatedly failing to observe health safety obligations, a valid reason for dismissal found to have existed, but the company still found to have acted unlawfully," David Gregory, the chamber's workplace policy director, said.
The Fair Work tribunal said the firing was a "disaster" for the worker, taking into account he had been employed by his company for 20 years, was married with two daughters and had a mortgage of about $60,000.
It also found he left school at 16, did not complete secondary school and had not found another job, The Australian said.
Fair Work ruled the worker should have been warned rather than fired, and ordered his reinstatement and compensation of $16,000.
