How one bank's 'poor' process nearly turned a resignation into dismissal
A bank's disciplinary process survived a forced resignation claim — but the Fair Work Commission had harsh words about how it was handled.
In a decision handed down on 27 February 2026, Commissioner Matheson ruled that a Fraud Detection Analyst who resigned from a major bank had not been dismissed within the meaning of the Fair Work Act 2009. The employee, who had seven years of service and was acknowledged by the bank as exemplary, had filed a general protections dispute arguing she was forced out. The bank maintained she left voluntarily. The case, A v Bank [2026] FWC 526, turned on whether the resignation amounted to a dismissal — and the answer carried lessons far beyond the parties involved.
The trouble started on 14 July 2025, when the employee returned from annual leave and was pulled into a meeting with the bank's Head of Group Investigations. She was not told beforehand what the meeting was about. Once there, she was questioned about her partner's dismissal from a different bank for fraud back in 2017, along with transactions in her own accounts going as far back as 2013. She confirmed she knew about her partner's dismissal but said she had been advised by a lawyer not to disclose the matter to anyone.
A week later, on 21 July 2025, she was called into a second meeting — again without being told the purpose — and handed a show cause letter. The letter stated the bank's view that it could no...
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