Worker sacked over road rage incident

HE MAY have already clocked off, but it didn’t stop this worker from losing his job over an incident that started when a fellow motorist gave him the finger.

CRANKY motorists be warned: Losing your cool on the road could cost you your job, even if you’ve already clocked off — and the other person started it.

That’s what a South Australian electrical technician discovered when the Fair Work Commission upheld his dismissal for an altercation with a young female driver.

The man, who had worked for fire and security systems maintenance company Spectrum Fire for nine years, was driving home with a colleague in a company-owned four wheel drive when the July incident took place.

In what was labelled an “aggressive” road-rage incident, he allegedly wound down his passenger window to yell at the woman after she pulled her car alongside his and gave him the finger.

The situation escalated after the female driver overtook him and started hitting the brakes repeatedly while in front of him, just to annoy him.

Both cars pulled into a side street and the woman filmed the male driver on her mobile phone approaching her side window before returning to his car, then allegedly pulling up close to her vehicle with his headlights on and engine running.

The pair exchanged “heated words” and discussed going to the police station, the commission heard.

But when she saw the man’s jumper printed with the name of his employer, the woman allegedly said: “Ah, Spectrum Fire, now you’re stuffed.”

The parent company investigated the worker after the woman lodged a formal complaint, and found its employee to be the “aggressor” in the incident, initially telling him he would be dismissed before agreeing to accept his resignation.

“He engaged in inappropriate verbal exchanges over several minutes, purposely detoured in order to follow the vehicle, parking close behind it whilst revving his vehicle,” Engie found. “He also approached the other road user’s vehicle uninvited.”

The worker took Engie to the Fair Work Commission seeking relief for “unfair dismissal”, arguing that the incident did not constitute serious misconduct and that he, in fact, was the victim of aggression.

But Fair Work Commissioner Peter Hampton found that the dismissal was valid, and that the fact the woman may have sparked the incident did not diminish the seriousness of his behaviour.

“Although she was mainly responsible for the initial events ... the conduct of [the former worker] in following her, coming to her window, and then aggressively moving his vehicle up even closer behind her ... would reasonably be understood to be intimidating and aggressive,” Mr Hampton said.

Originally published as Worker sacked over road rage incident