A former Woolworths employee has been accused of wasting the Fair Work Commission's time after filing an unfair dismissal case over feeling 'upset' at being told to cover up his bum crack. In a decision published on Thursday, Fair Work Commission deputy president Alan Colman rejected the Victorian man's application for compensation, partly because no dismissal had actually occurred.
Fifth Application in Two Years
This was the man's fifth application in two years. Colman described the case as an example of unmeritorious claims, stating that he dismissed the application ex tempore earlier that day. The complainant, while working a casual shift at the supermarket, was informed by a co-worker that 'the cleft of his bottom was protruding from his trousers' and was rudely told to cover up. In lay terms, this referred to the exposure of his bum crack, also known colloquially as 'builder's bum' or 'plumber's crack'.
No Dismissal Occurred
Colman noted that the complainant was upset and lodged an application alleging dismissal in breach of his workplace rights, seeking compensation. However, Woolworths countered that the man continued to work shifts after lodging his claim and later stopped turning up for work, contradicting his application. 'The complainant was not dismissed,' Colman said. 'He had no standing to make the application. This case had nothing to do with dismissal.'
Colman further stated: 'It was evidently a speculative claim made in pursuit of a monetary settlement that would spare Woolworths the nuisance of defending it.' He was unable to put this argument to the complainant because the man ignored his direction to attend the telephone hearing.
Waste of Commission Resources
Colman warned that unmeritorious claimants have little to lose, which is unfair to respondents with no case to answer and to applicants with genuine cases waiting their turn. 'Very often there are no compensable costs, only wasted time. There is no effective disincentive for speculative claims, and so they come, in great numbers, compounding the Commission's burgeoning caseload.'
Lodgements to the Fair Work Commission have surged in the past five years, rising from 29,631 in 2020-21 to 44,075 in 2024-25, and are expected to exceed 50,000 in the coming year. Fair Work Commission President Justice Adam Hatcher told the Victorian Bar in February that the proliferation of AI tools, including ChatGPT since 2022, is a main driver for this surge. 'In the previous decade, there was a clear correlation between the number of dismissal-related applications and the state of the labour market. However, that statistical relationship has broken down in the last couple of years. The clue that the growth in lodgments was AI-driven first became apparent by the widespread use of AI-generated language in the applications being filed.'
