The employer wrote to the HR manager asking that she return the file or tell them where they could find it. The letter also warned the manager that by failing to respond, she could jeopardize her employment status.
“The HR manager then made an unfair dismissal claim arguing that she took the file to protect herself because she was concerned that it would be altered,” Athena Koelmeyer, managing director of Workplace Law, wrote for Smart Company. “The HR manager also argued that the employer didn’t have a valid reason for dismissing her because she didn’t receive its direction to return the file--apparently her solicitors never passed on the message.”
The ruling from the Fair Work Commission in Australia found, however, that the employer was reasonable in assuming “that the complete failure on behalf of the HR manager and her solicitors to respond to the employer’s demands for the HR file to be returned represented a deliberate refusal to comply with the employer’s lawful and reasonable directions,” Koelmeyer wrote.