Bright paramedic Mark Frost appeals Dandenong transfer in VCAT over bullying case

A Bright paramedic who bullied his female co-workers has appealed a disciplinary decision that saw him move from Victoria’s alpine region to Melbourne’s southeast.

Ambulance Victoria paramedic Mark Frost has appealed a bullying sanction that saw him transferred from Bright to Dandenong. Picture: David Crosling

A Bright paramedic who was reprimanded for belittling and being rude to his female co-workers has successfully argued his bullying behaviour did not amount to “serious misconduct”.

Ambulance Victoria officer Mark Frost appealed a forced cross-state transfer from Bright — in Victoria’s northern alpine region — to Dandenong, before a tribunal of Fair Work commissioners.

The paramedic’s appeal came after a decision from Fair Work commissioner Scott Connolly, which characterised his behaviour as bullying and “serious misconduct”.

An Ambulance Victoria investigation found Frost had bullied his female co-workers. Picture: David Geraghty

Frost was accused of workplace bullying in 2021 while working as a paramedic team leader in Bright, where he was suspended pending an investigation.

The investigation — undertaken by Bryan Lacy AO — found Frost had been “rude, didn’t respect women, ignored the greetings of one complainant and wouldn’t engage with her in conversation”, as well as “belittling the person’s contributions and failed to create a safe working environment”.

At the time, Frost was given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and the proposed disciplinary transfer.

The tribunal heard he had offered to stand down as team leader in order to continue working in the alpine region.

Ambulance Victoria rejected the offer, ultimately going through with the transfer to “minimise the risk of him engaging in the same or similar conduct again, imposing an appropriate disciplinary sanction to allow Frost to return to his substantive duties”.

Ambulance Victoria told the tribunal Frost stepping down “wouldn’t have fixed the problem that arose from him working in an isolated branch with the complainant”.

Frost appealed the transfer sanction at the Fair Work Commission. Picture: Supplied

In Frost’s appeal, he didn’t dispute the bullying, rather the characterisation of it as “serious misconduct”, saying Ambulance Victoria had not offered him procedural fairness.

Ambulance Victoria told the tribunal it was “unclear” how Frost had been treated unfairly, saying there had been “no contention he had not been afforded procedural fairness through the investigation”.

Ultimately, the tribunal found the commissioner had “proceeded on the basis that a finding of bullying must mean the relevant conduct amounts to serious misconduct” and ruled this as an “error of law”.

The tribunal ruled the decision to equate bullying with serious misconduct was incorrect — as bullying “can be charted on a wide spectrum” — however rejected that Ambulance Victoria had treated Frost unfairly.

The tribunal ultimately quashed Frost’s transfer and approved the case to be reopened for redetermination.

Fair Work defines bullying as “when the worker is at work in a constitutionally covered business, an individual or group repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards the worker … and that behaviour creates a risk to health and safety”.