The worker said a missing witness sank the employer’s case - the court saw it differently
A senior manager sacked while off work with a psychological injury has lost her Federal Court appeal against the dismissal.
On September 8, 2026, the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed the appeal, leaving in place findings that Melbourne rail operator Metro Trains Melbourne let the worker go because she could not return to work and it needed her role filled permanently - not because she had exercised a workplace right.
The decision is worth HR’s attention because it tidies up three things that come up constantly: how the general-protections reverse onus actually works, when a show cause letter tips over into being a "threat," and whether medical information from a workers’ compensation claim can be turned into a damages case.
The worker had led a large operational group as a senior manager since October 2019, with about eight depot managers and roughly 500 train drivers under that structure. In late February 2022, colleagues raised complaints alleging bullying, and Metro Trains stood her down to look into them. Weeks later she lodged a workers’ compensation claim backed by a certificate diagnosing a "severe psychological injury." The insurer rejected the claim, and she challenged that decision.
With the compensation dispute still live, Metro Trains reviewed her employment after more than three months off. On July 11, 2022, it sent a show cause letter saying it was "proposing to...
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