He lined up his next job early - then his employer said he'd ended things himself
A worker who lined up his next job before his old one ended just cleared the first hurdle in his unfair dismissal case.
On June 25, 2026, the Fair Work Commission ruled that Serco Australia dismissed a detention officer at its Adelaide Immigration Detention Centre. The company had argued he ended his own employment by signing with the incoming contractor. The Commission disagreed.
The backdrop is one plenty of HR teams will recognize: a lost contract and a messy handover. Serco had run onshore immigration detention since 2009. In November 2024, the Department of Home Affairs told the company its contract would not be renewed, and operations began shifting to a new provider, Secure Journeys, in staggered stages. The Adelaide centre changed hands on May 5, 2025.
The worker had been with Serco since 2021, permanent full-time from late 2023. As the handover neared, he applied for the same role with Secure Journeys and signed with them on April 13, 2025, to start on May 5 - the day Serco's operation ended. He did not tell Serco.
This is where the people decisions get interesting. Serco sorted transitioning staff into three groups: those it would redeploy, those leaving with a redundancy, and those moving to the incoming contractor. It told employees that anyone who reached a deal with Secure Journeys "brings their employment to an end with Serco." It pressed the worker again and again to confirm...
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