Fed: Dismissal justified over worker's rape threats: AIRC

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2006
Fed: Dismissal justified over worker's rape threats: AIRC

(EDS: Attention to language in sixth and last pars)



By Samantha Baden, Industrial Reporter

SYDNEY, April 21 AAP - An insurance company was right to sack a Sydney worker after
he twice threatened to punch a senior manager in the face and rape her, an industrial
tribunal has ruled.

Greg Fox, a former risk engineer at Allianz Australia Services Pty Limited, took his
employer to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) after he was sacked
over the exchange, which he said he could not remember.

Mr Fox and his colleagues had been attending a trivia night at a central Sydney bowling
club on September 3, 2004.

It was alleged that Mr Fox threatened a senior Allianz manager late in the evening
when she approached him to ask why he was not accompanying his colleagues onto another
pub.

Mr Fox, who claimed he consumed a large amount of alcohol during the night, allegedly
twice told the female manager that everyone hated her and he could punch her in the face.

"I could fucking punch you in the face and when you are on the ground, rape you," it's
alleged Mr Fox said.

AIRC commissioner Michael Roberts said Mr Fox's "evasive" manner in the witness box
and failure to remember details of the exchange had led him to favour the woman's version
of events.

The female manager lodged a complaint with Allianz's human resources department the
following working day in which she claimed she felt threatened by Mr Fox, especially since
she often worked late at night.

She was advised "it is probably best if you don't work late for the next couple of weeks".

Mr Fox was sacked by Allianz on September 29, 2004, but claimed he was denied procedural
fairness because the alleged event occurred after a work function had already concluded.

He also claimed Allianz's investigation had been biased against him.

However, Mr Roberts found Mr Fox's termination was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable
and he was satisfied the trivia night was a workplace event.

"It is not necessary for me to determine the exact terms of the verbal exchange," Mr
Roberts said in his judgment.

"But I am confident in the view that Mr Fox, at the very least, launched an unprovoked
verbal assault on (the manager) telling her words to the effect, everyone fucking hates
you ... and uttered either the words fuck you or fuck off."

AAP smb/tam/jas/pe/sd

KEYWORD: FOX

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