WORKPLACE RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 448 Employer not to dismiss employee etc. for engaging in protected action
This legislation has been repealed.
WORKPLACE RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 448
Employer not to dismiss employee etc. for engaging in protected action(1) An employer must not:
(a) dismiss an employee, injure an employee in his or her employment or alter the position of an employee to the employee's prejudice; or
(b) threaten to dismiss an employee, injure an employee in his or her employment or alter the position of an employee to the employee's prejudice;
wholly or partly because the employee is proposing to engage, is engaging, or has engaged, in protected action.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to any of the following actions taken by the employer:
(a) standing‑down the employee;
(b) refusing to pay the employee, if:
(i) the refusal is in accordance with section 507; or
(ii) under the common law, the employer is permitted to do so because the employee has not performed work as directed;
(c) action that is itself protected action.
(3) Subsection (1) is a civil remedy provision.
(4) The Court may make one or more of the following orders in relation to a person who has contravened subsection (1):
(a) an order imposing a pecuniary penalty on the person;
(b) injunctions, and any other orders, that the Court considers necessary to stop the contravention or remedy its effects.
(5) The pecuniary penalty under paragraph (4)(a) cannot be more than 300 penalty units for a body corporate or 60 penalty units in any other case.
(6) Other orders the Court may make under paragraph (4)(b) include (but are not limited to):
(a) if the contravention was constituted by dismissing an employee--an order to reinstate the person dismissed to the position that the person occupied immediately before the dismissal or to a position no less favourable than that position; and
(b) in any case--to pay, to the person dismissed, injured or prejudiced, compensation for loss suffered as a result of the dismissal, injury or prejudice.
(7) An application for an order under subsection (4) may be made by:
(a) the employee concerned; or
(b) an organisation of employees of which that employee is a member; or
(c) a workplace inspector; or
(d) any other person prescribed by the regulations.
(8) In proceedings for an order under subsection (4), it is to be presumed, unless the employer proves otherwise, that the alleged conduct of the employer was carried out wholly or partly because the employee was proposing to engage, was engaging, or had engaged, in protected action.
Note: For other provisions about civil remedy provisions, see Division 3 of Part 14.