'Unsatisfactory' real estate worker's unfair dismissal case dismissed by watchdog
A Queensland real estate worker's catalogue of workplace failures has been revealed in a Fair Work Commission ruling, after he took action against Century 21 for firing him.
A Queensland real estate worker who regularly turned up late, mismanaged keys and got into an argument with a nearby RSL Club over parking has had his claims of unfair dismissal rejected by the state watchdog.
Ryan Bennett took Century 21 Platinum Agency to the Fair Work Commission in August 2025 after losing his job at the company’s Maryborough office for repeated bad performance.
The published Fair Work decision said Mr Bennett had been hired as a Property Management Associate, an entry level job, in late 2023.
In June 2024, about nine months after Mr Bennett started work, he was given a written warning by his supervisor about ongoing performance issues.
Those included that he was regularly late for work beyond his 8.30am start time, was inattentive when performing important tasks, often used his private phone during work hours, and disregarded training directions from colleagues and directions from his Head of Department, the decision said.
The issues included incorrectly logging customer information and failing to correctly log keys in and out of the office.
This left agents with the wrong set of keys at routine inspections, forcing them to drive back to the office to grab the right keys.
The decision said agents started bypassing Mr Bennett entirely and organising their own keys as a result.
He was placed on a one month review period and warned he could face further discipline if he did not improve.
Six months later, in December 2024, Mr Bennett’s duties were scaled back due to the ongoing problems and he was essentially left in the role of a receptionist.
The decision said in March 2025, he got into an argument with workers at an RSL venue near the office over parking.
After parking at the venue on his way to work, Mr Bennett claimed an RSL worker “yelled at him and aggressively asked him to move his vehicle”.
Commissioner Adam Walkaden instead found it was Mr Bennett who argued with the worker, including asking “whether there was anywhere that specifies that he cannot park his vehicle in the RSL car park” before being directed to a sign clearly stating such by another RSL worker.
The RSL then complained to Century 21 Platinum Agency about Mr Bennett, who was wearing company clothing at the time.
On April 1, he failed to switch the office phone lines across to night mode at the end of the day, leaving them to ring out instead of going to a voicemail with instructions on how clients could get urgent after hours help.
Another issue, flagged in a May 2025 email to Mr Bennett, said only two weeks before his termination he failed to connect calls from clients to relevant property managers, including when the managers were at their desks “waiting on these telephone calls”.
Mr Walkaden found the company took “various steps” to improve Mr Bennett’s performance, including stripping back his workload and clearly outlining the similar tasks of his new role as carried out at its Gympie office, before letting him go.
He found Mr Bennett’s performance was “unsatisfactory” and dismissed his claim saying, the company had clearly outlined its expectations of him and given notice and an opportunity to respond and had made efforts to help him in the job.
