Manager sent all employees home because he wasn't sure he could pay wages
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently dealt with an unfair dismissal application from an installation manager who alleged he had been unfairly dismissed from his employment with an energy company.
The worker commenced employment on 22 January 2024 and lodged an application on 26 April 2025 for a remedy, alleging unfair dismissal. A threshold issue to determine in the matter was whether the worker had been dismissed from his employment.
The worker claimed that at a company meeting in April 2025, the manager advised employees that the company was going into administration and that all employees had to find new jobs.
The manager explained that the company had a significant amount of outstanding customer debt, and he informed employees that he was uncertain about paying wages that week.
The manager said he thought it was unfair to require employees to work if he was unsure whether they would be paid.
On 7 April 2025, the worker approached the manager to inform him that he had put an offer on a house to purchase and wanted to confirm that he had job stability before he paid a deposit.
The manager informed the worker that he was worried that the company was "going under" and that he had spent the past six weeks sleeping on the office floor.
The manager requested that the worker give him a day to work everything out and asked the worker to keep this information...
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