Even airtight documentary evidence couldn't shift the Fair Work costs rule
A worker accused a colleague of physical assaults at work. The employer had records it said showed the incidents never happened. The court still refused to award costs.
On 7 May 2026, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) handed down its decision in Fezzuoglio v Employers Mutual Management Pty Ltd [2026] FedCFamC2G 736, dismissing the employer's bid to recover legal costs after the former employee discontinued her case by consent.
The worker, Sara Fezzuoglio, had filed her original application on 19 September 2024. The proceeding concerned complaints she said she had raised in the workplace, which on the Respondent's case underpinned allegations said to have been workplace rights under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Those complaints centred on allegations that a colleague, Ms Davis, had physically assaulted her at work and at after-work events.
The employer's response was, by any measure, forensic. In its submissions, Employers Mutual Management told the court that the alleged events simply did not occur. The applicant, it said, was not in the office on 28 April 2024, the date she had listed as her date of injury on her workers' compensation claim form, and that date was a Sunday. The employer also told the court that the drinks event did not occur, and that Ms Davis had never caught her hair in an escalator, an incident the applicant had referenced. Separately, the employer...
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