He’d handed over a medical certificate - the salon emailed a dormant address instead
A Sydney hair salon fired a stylist for “abandoning” his job while he was on certified sick leave - then lost the unfair dismissal case.
The Fair Work Commission handed down its decision on August 25, 2026. It found the salon, a franchisee in a national hairdressing chain, had unfairly dismissed the worker in September 2025. The employer had treated his extended medical absence as abandonment of employment and ended his job by email. At the hearing, it conceded he had in fact supplied a medical certificate covering the absence. That concession settled it: with no abandonment, there was no valid reason to dismiss.
The Commission found the dismissal harsh, unjust and unreasonable - the test for unfair dismissal under the Fair Work Act. The worker, an Italian national whose visa and right to remain in Australia depended on the salon sponsoring him, had been off work since mid-August 2025. A medical certificate described a major depressive episode with associated anxiety, and a certificate of capacity said he had no capacity for any work through late September.
One point drew close attention. The owner, who was also the salon’s sole director, sent her follow-up and termination emails to a Hotmail address the worker said had been dormant for some time - even though the two had been using their work email addresses for sensitive matters, including disciplinary letters, only weeks earlier. The...
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