A union delegate fired for mocking a Muslim colleague as a "bacon hater" on Facebook has won back his job. Glen Stutsel, a driver with transport company Linfox, also verbally abused two of his managers on the social networking website. While discussing the habits of bears in a Facebook chat with another employee, he said: " ... I admire any creature that has the capacity to rip Nina and Assaf heads off, sh*t down their throats and then chew up and spit out their lifeless body!"
The two managers, Nina Russell and Michael Assaf, called the comments racially derogatory, sexual discrimination and harassment. Linfox sacked the 22-year veteran. But he got back his job with back pay after taking an unfair dismissal case to Fair Work Australia.
Tribunal commissioner Michael Roberts found Stutsel's treatment was "harsh, unjust and unreasonable". Russell had complained she was "deeply upset that an employee working within the contract I manage appears to have articulated in graphic detail what can only be described as my torture, mutilation and death".
Assaf said he was "horrified to see that Mr Stutsel had made comments of a religious nature on Facebook". Stutsel said his Facebook account had "maximum privacy restrictions" and was not then "open to the public". He denied making racist remarks and making a statement about Russell that amounted to sexual discrimination or harassment.
Roberts was told the reference to "bacon hater" was not an expression of racism but was "totally inappropriate and totally regrettable workplace banter". The bear comments contained "no real threat of violence towards any managers" and were simply an expression of some antipathy and hostility.
Roberts found that Stutsel was not guilty of serious misconduct and there was no valid reason to fire him.