Former Toowoomba Regional Council employee fails to have job reinstated after appeal to Industrial Relations Commission

A former Toowoomba council employee has been rebuked by the Industrial Relations Commission for using a bid to win his job back to criticise his ex-colleagues.

A former Toowoomba Regional Council employee has been blasted by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

A former Toowoomba Regional Council employee who used his appeal for reinstatement “as a vehicle” to criticise the conduct of his ex-colleagues and superiors has been rebuked by the commissioner handling his case.

Simon Thomson was sacked in December 2019 after eight years as a ganger with Toowoomba Regional Council.

His dismissal came after he went through a show cause process relating to “several breaches of the code of conduct”.

He then lodged an application for reinstatement with the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in February last year, more than 60 days after his original dismissal and well beyond the statutory time limit of 21 days.

Mr Thomson contended the delay in appealing was due to “uncertainty around the procedure” and that the council had not properly informed him of the process he had to go through.

But in her judgment, Industrial Commissioner Catherine Hartigan found Mr Thomson had been told within the statutory time limit how to lodge his appeal and that there was no “reasonable explanation” for his delay.

“I have concluded, on the material, that Mr Thomson was aware that he had a remedy to commence unfair dismissal proceedings and that he had already been directed by the council to the commission with respect to making an application for reinstatement,” the judgment says.

Ms Hartigan was also critical of Mr Thomson’s affidavit, in which he largely argued that he had been treated unfairly compared to other employees.

Mr Thomson said he was targeted by a previous supervisor and had been the victim of verbal abuse and a physical assault at the hands of colleagues.

“My application contains references to very inappropriate conduct by Toowoomba Regional Council management, in their managing and more relevantly how they chose to manage other staff for their conduct, in contrast to the harsh actions they chose to effect upon me,” he wrote.

But Ms Hartigan said Mr Thomson provided no “direct evidence” of wrongdoing and that the allegations were not relevant to his application.

“These other matters are simply not relevant to the consideration of whether Mr Thomson’s dismissal was harsh, unfair or unreasonable in the circumstance of this matter,” the judgment says.

“Further, I do not consider it appropriate for the proceedings relating to Mr Thomson’s reinstatement application to be used as a vehicle to conduct a roving inquiry into all conduct by the council that Mr Thomson does not agree with.

“I do not consider that the matters raised by Mr Thomson are matters which fall in Mr Thomson’s favour when assessing the merit of his matter.”