Six former Temple Christian College staff asks court to penalise school for 2021 sackings over Covid-19 vaccine mandate compliance
They were sacked after not proving their jab status – now these former staff want an Adelaide private school to pay for its actions.
Six former staff of Temple Christian College are asking a court to penalise the school for sacking them in 2021 because they did not provide proof of getting a Covid-19 vaccination.
The staff – Adrian Siegfried, Mark Treloar, Karen Chang, Andrea Mitchell, Christopher Pappas and Stewart Robertson – have alleged the school did not have valid grounds to fire them on the spot when they did not meet a deadline to prove their vaccination status.
In a judgment delivered by the SA Employment Tribunal last month, Magistrate Katherine Eaton rejected the school’s bid to strike out orders for two of the staff, Mr Siegfried and Mr Treloar.
The application asked the court to order the school and its principal, Marcel Rijken, to pay them penalties for allegedly failing to comply with its enterprise agreement, under which they were entitled to payment in lieu of 12 weeks’ notice of being fired.
Ms Eaton said the school had argued Mr Siegfried and Mr Treloar’s termination had already been the subject of a settlement, and their application was “frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of process”.
The magistrate ultimately found the pair, who represented themselves in court, should not be struck out from the application because more evidence was required to determine whether the settlement disqualified them from bringing the present legal action.
Mr Robertson, who was a legal studies and workplace practices teacher, won a separate case against the school last year, securing an order to be paid in lieu of notice of his dismissal.
Mr Pappas had been the school’s head of mathematics, Mr Treloar had been a teacher at the school for more than 37 years, and Mr Siegfried a teacher for more than 17 years.
In the judgment for Mr Robertson’s case last year, the court was told Mr Rijken had sent an email in November 2021 to all staff, saying they were required to provide proof of their vaccine status in six days or they would be fired.
However, by that deadline, 42 of the 196 employees said they were not vaccinated, were still considering vaccination or had not advised of their status.
The next day, Mr Rijken sent individual emails to these staff, including Mr Robertson, Mr Treloar, Mr Pappas and Mr Siegfried.
“You may have already notified me that you do not intend to be vaccinated or will not meet the requirements,” the email to Mr Robertson said.
“If this is the case, I regret to inform you … your employment will cease from 11 December 2021 and you will be paid all your leave entitlements within seven days.”
Temple Christian College is a coeducational K-12 school with campuses in Paralowie, Mile End and Marion.
The case is set to return to court.
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Originally published as Six former Temple Christian College staff asks court to penalise school for 2021 sackings over Covid-19 vaccine mandate compliance
