The files he gathered to prove underpayment became the case Ventia built against him
A worker who said his employer shorted him nearly $100,000 lost his case - and a court told him to hand over his devices.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has thrown out an underpayment claim brought by a former operations manager against Ventia, the maintenance and services group listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges. The ruling, delivered on June 26, 2026, in Adelaide, is a clean illustration of how annualized salary contracts hold up against overtime claims - and a cautionary note on what a departing employee can do with company files.
The man had worked for Ventia until August 2025, most recently under a fixed-term contract paying a total fixed remuneration of $150,000 a year plus a company car. After leaving, he sued under the Fair Work Act. He said he regularly worked 50 to 60 hours a week and was owed overtime, unpaid annual leave, a living-away-from-home allowance and an on-call allowance - about $100,000 all up. He also wanted Ventia penalized for allegedly failing to keep proper employment records.
Ventia's answer was blunt. The contract set his hours at 38 a week "plus any reasonable additional hours," and his salary already covered the extra time. Read that way, the National Employment Standards - the baseline entitlements every employee gets - added nothing, because his actual pay sat above the theoretical minimum.
The court sided with the...
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