Three experts, three different answers - and one employee stuck in the middle for years
A defence manufacturer said its lab worker did two jobs. His union said one. The Fair Work Commission has now settled the question.
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that a laboratory technical assistant at Thales Australia's munitions operation held a single, expanded role rather than two separate jobs, and determined that he should be reclassified to a higher pay level - backdated to the day he first asked for a review.
The decision, handed down on July 28, 2026, turns on a scenario familiar to any human resources or industrial relations team: an employee gradually takes on new work, and no one ever formally changes the job.
The worker, employed at the site since September 2019, answered an internal call in 2020 to help configure the laboratory's information management system - technical work involving databases, SQL queries and troubleshooting. He began in August 2020. But he was never given a separate contract, separate pay or separate hours, and no record was kept of when he was doing the new work as opposed to his original role. He simply did both.
That informality shaped the outcome.
Thales argued the worker held two distinct positions and should be paid separately for each while performing it. The AMWU argued there was only one role, and that the whole of it should sit at a single, higher classification.
The Commission accepted the union's position on that central point. It...
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