A frustrated group-chat message set off a fight over who ended the job
A wine company thought its national sales manager had quit in a frustrated group chat message. Fair Work disagreed.
In a decision handed down on June 25, 2026, the Fair Work Commission found that Grandeur Wines Pty Ltd, which trades as Elysian Springs, had dismissed its national sales and distribution manager - even though the company had argued he resigned. The finding, though, changed nothing for the worker: his claim was thrown out because he filed it months too late.
The dispute began in a group chat. The manager, who said he had helped build the business and had hit a point of "severe work-related stress" amid a falling-out among the company's directors, wrote on January 29, 2025: "Manish please take this as notice - I will be tendering my resignation tomorrow effective end of February." He later said he had meant to send it to one person only, that his manager talked him into staying, and that he never followed through with a formal resignation.
The company saw it differently. Over the following weeks it treated the message as a resignation. In an email of March 3, 2025, it said it accepted his resignation and asked him not to "attempt to return to work at Elysian Springs." A day later, it told him his employment would "conclude effective 28th February 2025." The directors had already settled the question among themselves, voting "2 to 1 in favour of letting [him] go."
The Commissioner was not...
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