by Misa Han
A court has thrown out an unlawful dismissal case that a former employee brought against Freelancer and its founder and chief executive Matt Barrie.
Former operations and talent manager Matthew O'Kane sued Freelancer and Mr Barrie personally in the Federal Circuit Court, alleging he was unlawfully sacked by the ASX-listed company because he had made a complaint about a former employee, who is referred to in the judgment as "Mr X".
Freelancer and Mr Barrie disputed the claim and said Mr O'Kane resigned from his job when he "stormed out" of the office after saying to Mr Barrie: "I'm done with this", "Screw this" and "I'm done with this company".
In a judgment handed down on Friday, Judge Nicholas Manousaridis of the Federal Circuit Court found Mr O'Kane did not resign from his job that day, but that Freelancer lawfully terminated his employment.
http://www.copyright link/content/dam/images/g/z/7/c/j/s/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1508826089329.jpg Mr X's mother visits
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Last updated: Tue May 01 2018 - 11:28:21 pm View full quote
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The key incident in the case involved Mr X's mother coming into Freelancer's office in 2016 after Mr X was sacked, demanding Mr X's jacket and other items he had left in the office.
Mr Barrie believed Mr O'Kane had already returned Mr X's items, according to his instructions.
But in fact Mr O'Kane had not returned the items and they were still in the office cupboard.
Mr Barrie gave evidence that after Mr X's mother left, Mr Barrie told Mr O'Kane: "I am totally shocked that you haven't returned them and caused this whole situation to escalate," to which Mr O'Kane responded: "I'm not having this conversation! Stuff this! I'm done with this company, I'm through! I'm over it!"
Complaint not reason for sacking
The judge said that even before the incident, Mr Barrie was extremely angry with Mr O'Kane for inviting ABC investigations program Four Corners into the Freelancer offices without first checking with him or the company's press team.
He also found Freelancer terminated his employment not because he had made a complaint about Mr X but because Mr O'Kane did not comply with Mr Barrie's instruction to return Mr X's property to him.
"Mr Barrie charged Mr O'Kane with not having carried out an instruction Mr Barrie believed he had given to him," Judge Manousaridis said.
"I find that Mr Barrie had resolved from that point that he did not want Mr O'Kane to remain an employee; and that he so decided because Mr Barrie believed he had given an instruction to Mr O'Kane to return Mr X's property and that, contrary to the fact, he believed that Mr O'Kane carried out that instruction."
A Freelancer spokeswoman said: "Freelancer considers the complaint to be a fanciful exaggeration by Mr O'Kane."
She said the outcome was a "devastating judgment" on Mr O'Kane.
She added: "We think that this case ... was ultimately a waste of the court's time and taxpayers' money."
Freelancer will consider whether to make an application for legal costs.
Mr O'Kane, through his lawyer, declined to comment.
