Four projects on site before the direct hire, and the clock still started from scratch
A site manager's years on a builder's projects counted for nothing once the Fair Work Commission looked at who had actually employed him.
A Full Bench dismissed his appeal on August 18, 2026. It disagreed with part of the reasoning at first instance but reached the same result, and along the way settled a point no Full Bench had ruled on: taking on labour hire staff is not the same as outsourcing work.
The setup will be familiar to anyone who converts contract staff to permanent roles. Cubism Projects Pty Ltd, a construction project company specialising in industrial and commercial design and construction, engaged a labour hire firm. That firm employed the worker, who worked as a site manager on four of Cubism's projects across 2023 and 2024. Cubism then employed him directly from July 23, 2024. On May 2, 2025, the company purported to accept his resignation. He lodged an unfair dismissal application four days later.
Cubism is a small business, which set the minimum employment period at one year. That is the qualifying service an employee must have before the Commission can consider an unfair dismissal claim at all. His time as a direct employee did not reach it. Everything turned on whether his earlier service through the labour hire firm counted.
Under the Fair Work Act, service with an earlier employer carries across only where there has been a transfer of business. He relied on the...
The Essential Services Commission has cancelled the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) accreditation of two businesses for allegedly providing false information about their energy efficiency projects...