Casual pool attendant lost his job after a storm - then tried to pull the site manager in too

A storm shut a pool. A worker lost his job. His attempt to drag the site manager into court has now failed.

In a decision handed down on May 20, 2026, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia drew a firm line around one of the trickiest questions in labour hire: when a worker is supplied to one company but takes orders from another, who can actually be sued for a dismissal?

The worker was Shane David Averill, a casual pool attendant at the Woomera RAAF Base. His employer was OSOS Alliance Pty Ltd, a labour hire firm. The base was managed by Ventia Services Group Limited, described in the judgment as a publicly listed company that maintains and manages infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand, under a contract with the Department of Defence.

In October 2024, a severe storm cut power to the base and the pool closed. Averill says he was reassigned to the refrigeration stores, where he fell and injured his left leg. Within days, OSOS ended his casual contract, pointing to the storm, the outages and a looming Christmas closure.

Averill sued OSOS under the general protections part of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which shields workers from "adverse action" - things like dismissal - taken for a banned reason. He argued he was let go because of his injury, triggering protections against disability discrimination and against sacking someone for a temporary absence caused by...

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