Townsville mum Rebecca Callow’s sacking deemed unfair by Fair Work Commission

A tribunal has ruled a Queensland mum who was sacked after making a mistake in a cancer charity fundraiser email was unfairly dismissed and must get her $9548 a month job back.

Rebecca Callow was earning about $9548 a month working as a dump-truck operator at the Carmichael mine in Queensland’s coalfields.

A Queensland mum who was sacked after she made a simple error in an email to the entire company’s staff was unfairly dismissed and must get her job back, a tribunal has ruled.

Rebecca Callow was earning about $9548 a month working as a dump-truck operator at the Carmichael mine in Queensland’s coalfields when she sent the email as part of organising a charity fundraiser for a colleague with advanced cancer.

Details of Callow’s sacking in November last year were revealed in the Fair Work Commission on Tuesday July 15 when Commissioner Paula Spencer ordered the mum of three from Townsville’s former employer, M People (Qld) Pty Ltd, reinstate her.

Mum of three Rebecca Callow, from Townsville.

M People (Qld) is part of the MacKellar Group of companies which provides staff for the Bravus Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland.

At Bravus she earned $2,387 a week and complimentary flights to and from Townsville and the mining site.

After her sacking she got a new job with a similar company for about $110 a week less at $2,276 a week but was forced to drive from Townsville to Moranbah, approximately 7.5 hours each way, at her own expense.

The FWC decision states that Callow sent an email to 850 staff and contractors offering to sell them charity shirts through an online portal, but she was sacked for breaching the company’s privacy policy by failing to “BCC” or “blind carbon copy” the personal email addresses.

Staff who received the email on their private addresses later complained to management that all their email addresses were visible to the staff who received the email.

The letter sacking her stated her actions “had caused reputational harm and complaints to the company”.

Mum of three Rebecca Callow, from Townsville, was a dump truck driver at the Carmichael Mine working for M People (QLD) Pty Ltd (part of MacKellar Group).

Callow told the tribunal that she had tried to get guidance from the onsite project manager, Mick Schafferius on how to send the charity email but after his initial involvement, he then failed to respond to her emails.

Callow admitted her inclusion of the email addresses by carbon copy (cc), and not blind carbon copy, was a mistake but she was under time pressure and was acting in good faith in support of her sick colleague.

She had no training or explanation from Bravus on the company privacy policies, she told the FWC.

In a letter she wrote to her boss on 15 November last year, Callow pleaded to keep her job.

“Our family is our number one priority and having both parents working away from our children, it is already hard enough for them and this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Callow, now aged 37, said, adding her husband also worked at the same mine site.

“We have recently built our dream house, and this unfortunate incident will have a devastating effect on us and our family if I lose my job, and I regret to inform everyone that rely on us that this will absolutely shatter us, our marriage, our extended family and our children’s uncertain future.

“I’d like to think I made an impact on people out here, and I will use this scenario as a learning curve, to try and work out the best possible way to make ends meet and to keep our heads above water. Losing my job will have huge financial consequence for us, our family and will create a bad reputation within the entire MacKellar workforce,” she wrote in the letter quoted in the decision.

Townsville mum of three Rebecca Callow.

“Please have some compassion when thinking of the outcome, as I believe this event was just a simple mistake that could’ve been avoided. I have learned a valuable lesson, and it will never happen again. I can be relied on to continue to be a hardworking and honest employee with a commitment to privacy.

“Once again, I apologize (SIC) for my mistake of breaching the privacy and confidentiality

agreements, and will not let this happen again. I’m taking responsibility for my actions and apologies to everyone affected by this,” she pleaded.

Ms Spencer ruled that Callow’s sacking was “not for a valid reason and was harsh, unjust, and unreasonable”.

“An order for reinstatement and continuity of service will be issued.

Callow agreed the fundraiser email to all staff was sent with the employee email addresses visible to all recipients.

“However, the position developed due to the lack of support, received from management who had authorised the fundraiser but did not respond to (Callow’s) inquiries at the critical time,” Ms Spencer wrote.

“This left (Callow) without guidance and the need to act unilaterally in relation to a time sensitive matter,” Ms Spencer wrote.

Callow’s fundraiser was ultimately successful and she paid more than $1000 from her own pocket to set up a digital platform to process the shirt orders and pay small fees for the sale of each shirt, the decision states.

She also individually typed each of the 850 email addresses.

Originally published as Townsville mum Rebecca Callow’s sacking deemed unfair by Fair Work Commission