How a one-day gap between dismissal and workers' comp sank a court case
A casual mine site worker was dismissed after a workplace injury. His workers' compensation claim came the day after. The timing proved decisive.
On 2 April 2026, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia refused to grant Raphael Charpentier an extension of time to file a general protections claim against his former employer, Rocktech Pty Ltd, a small business in Western Australia's Goldfields region. Charpentier alleged he was dismissed in retaliation for making a workers' compensation claim following a workplace injury.
Charpentier began working for Rocktech in May 2025 as a casual, site-based trainee ground support technician, to be assigned to a customer's mine site. He sustained a workplace injury on 29 August 2025. His workers' compensation claim is dated 16 September 2025. Rocktech's general manager, Kurt van den Elzen, gave evidence that he informed Charpentier at a meeting on 15 September 2025 "that he was to be stood down as [Rocktech] no longer had any work for him." That is one day before the compensation claim was lodged.
Asked about this at the hearing, Charpentier confirmed he had submitted the workers' compensation claim after his dismissal.
Charpentier maintained that the reasons given for his dismissal, that he had been "banned" from the Evolution Mining Mungari site and that there was no other work available for him, were not genuine. He said he was never given proof of the...
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