A resignation offered in anger, days to take it back, and a safety rebuke the builder didn't want
A worker said he'd quit in the heat of an argument. Fair Work found he meant it - and had days to take it back.
An experienced construction safety officer who insisted he'd been sacked has lost at the Fair Work Commission, which found on August 3, 2026 that he resigned - and passed up several chances to walk it back.
The worker was employed by builder Hutchinson Builders in northern Queensland. In February 2026, after a heated confrontation with a colleague on site, he told a manager he was "happy…to part ways" and said "I'll just walk now, I don't need to be here". About an hour later, calmer, he emailed managers that he had "offered to resign as it was obvious that my relationship with Mark was untenable".
He returned to the subject of resigning more than once. At a Microsoft Teams meeting on February 13, the employer's witnesses said he told the group "I think it will be easier if we part ways and I resign" and "if it makes it easier, I'll just resign". When managers told him on February 16 that his resignation had been accepted, he replied he was "not entirely happy, but it is what it is".
The worker later argued the company had terminated him, not that he'd resigned. He pointed to a text message - "Been informed I finish on Friday" - and to his account that a manager had promised written reasons for his termination. His first comment about leaving, he said, was a...
Pauline Hanson and Anthony Albanese traded insults during a live televised debate. Our verdict False. The quotes attributed to the politicians have been fabricated by a foreign-run disinformation ...