Valid grounds or not, a workplace complaint changes the legal equation
Alfred Health had solid grounds to terminate a nurse. A federal court ruled it was unlawful anyway.
On 27 February 2026, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia ordered Melbourne's Alfred Health to pay $22,000 in compensation and an $8,000 civil penalty to a former nurse practitioner it had dismissed in 2021.
The case turns on a scenario HR professionals encounter more often than they might like: an employee who has lodged a workplace complaint, gone on extended leave, and eventually can no longer perform their job. Alfred Health had a documented, legitimate basis for the termination. The court still found it unlawful.
Stacey Palfreyman worked as an Aged Care Nurse Practitioner in Alfred Health's Mobile Assessment and Treatment Service when she made a bullying complaint against colleagues. She went on workers compensation, which ran until May 2021. By September that year, she had not returned, and Alfred Health ended her employment on 8 September 2021 on the basis that she could not perform the inherent requirements of her role.
The medical evidence backed that position. Her last certificate of capacity stated: "Unable to return to work in previous role due to work environment and breakdown of relationships..."
But the termination was not made for that reason alone. The court had already found, in a liability judgment on 18 September 2024, that the dismissal was also connected to Palfreyman's...
Kenneth Scott Miller, 48, is charged with a felony count of making a false report to law enforcement. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $500 bond. According to an Escambia County ...