The misconduct was barely in dispute. One witness the agency never called changed everything

An employer can have a genuine reason to dismiss and still breach the law - if it cannot prove that reason stood alone.

That was the lesson from a general-protections decision handed down by the Federal Circuit and Family Court on June 22, 2026. Services Australia had a serious misconduct case on its hands. The court still found it breached the Fair Work Act.

The worker, a First Nations man, joined the agency as a service officer at a Victorian Smart Centre in November 2023. In his first three weeks, he lodged several complaints alleging racist and offensive treatment by colleagues. A preliminary fact-find could not find evidence that the conduct had occurred.

On December 5, 2023, during a training session, he punched a trainer in the head. A colleague pulled him away, and he was escorted out. He did not deny much of the incident, arguing only that he was not solely to blame.

The agency moved quickly. It suspended him on December 11 and dismissed him on December 15, each time through a formal delegate. Its case was clean on its face: the only reason for the action was the assault, which it treated as serious misconduct.

The worker argued the true reason was his complaints and his race.

Under the Fair Work Act's general protections, that argument shifts the ground. Once a worker shows they exercised a workplace right, such as making a complaint, or hold a protected attribute such as...

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