A reminder that internal grievance talks don't pause the statutory clock
A tribunal has ruled that a teacher's key pregnancy discrimination allegations can't proceed, finding she raised them too late.
In a decision delivered on June 22, 2026, the South Australian Employment Tribunal reviewed - and upheld - the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity's refusal to accept most of her complaint. The Commissioner is the gatekeeper for equal opportunity complaints in the state, and had ruled the alleged conduct fell outside the 12-month window set by the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA), with no good reason to extend it.
The worker alleged that her former employer, the Department for Education, discriminated against her over her pregnancy and caring responsibilities. According to her evidence, the trouble started in 2019. While on yard duty, she told a deputy principal she might be pregnant and asked whether she would get another contract. She said the reply was "no," with the deputy principal explaining that "it would not be fair to the kids to not provide continuity" if she took maternity leave mid-year. An expected contract for 2021, which she said rested on a verbal assurance, never eventuated.
A second, later chapter unfolded in 2023, when she discovered that a gap in her service had wiped out her long-service-leave entitlements. A drawn-out dispute with the Department followed. Her leave was eventually reinstated, and she received the payout in February 2025.
She lodged her...
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