Medical certificate cleared her to work elsewhere — but did that end the job?
When is an employee not dismissed? The Fair Work Commission has a clear answer — and a useful warning for HR teams managing long-term leave.
In a decision handed down on 5 May 2026, the Fair Work Commission dismissed an unfair dismissal application from a long-serving church employee who insisted her employer had ended her job — even as the employer kept telling her, in writing, that she was still on the books.
The case, Ai-Lin Annette Broughton v Hobart City Church of Christ Inc., turns on an increasingly familiar HR puzzle: what happens when an employee is medically certified as unable to return to their current workplace, but cleared to work somewhere else?
Mrs Broughton had worked for the Hobart City Church of Christ since November 2018, eventually splitting her time across operations, ministry and finance duties. In 2022, she disclosed a diagnosis of generalised anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder to the Church.
Things began to fray in April 2025 after what she said was her first performance review in six years. She told the Commission she found the meeting belittling and intimidating, and alleged that two Church leaders suggested during the review that she "should feel free to seek employment elsewhere and did not need to feel a sense of loyalty" to the Church.
Two months later, the Church asked her to sign a new contract that would reclassify her pay...
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