A senior public servant who claimed the Bureau of Meteorology sacked her for taking two days of approved leave in Paris before attending a conference has won her case in a judgment that also blasted “smoke and mirrors” tactics government agencies use to skirt hiring restrictions and hide big salaries.

Federal Circuit Court judge Douglas Humphreys found the bureau contravened the Fair Work Act four times in its treatment of Jasmine Chambers, who served as a general manager of the agency’s global and national science relationships from November 2018 to December 2020.