Fair Work Commission rules against Village Roadshow Theme Parks worker who opposed being forced to take leave

A landmark case has seen the Fair Work Commission rule against an employee who opposed Village Roadshow Theme Parks forcing her to take leave.

In an indication that workers are not happy with how their employers are using the JobKeeper provisions of the Fair Work Act, the case resulted from the refusal by a Village Roadshow Theme Parks worker to take one day's annual leave every week while she is on the JobKeeper subsidy.

In the first case of its type, the Fair Work Commission, which has indicated that it will turn cases of this type around quickly, has this week ruled against the employee.

The case resulted from Village Roadshow Theme Parks (VRTP) requesting that the employee, who had been issued with a JobKeeper enabling direction not to attend work, to take annual leave during the stand down period until her annual leave balance was reduced to two weeks.

The employee refused the request by providing an “annual leave justification” relying upon holidays plans she had made (but had not yet been approved by VRTP) and some personal circumstances including a previously undisclosed medical condition.

VRTP did not accept the “annual leave justification” stating it did not meet its guidelines to unreasonably refuse its request to take leave.

The employee applied to the Commission to resolve the dispute and in particular sought confirmation that she was not being unreasonable in refusing to agree to the employer’s request.

Ultimately, the Commission found that the employee’s refusal of the request by VRTP to take one day’s annual leave per week was unreasonable and she ordered the employee to “not continue to refuse the request made by VRTP”.

Between 9th April and 7th May 2020, 212 JobKeeper disputes have been lodged with the Commission.

Of these roughly 60% have been withdrawn and roughly 75% raised jurisdictional issues such as whether a casual employee is an ‘eligible employee’, whether the ‘one in all in’” principle and nomination of employees for JobKeeper payments and whether a dismissed employee can seek re-engagement to become an eligible employee.

In addition, according to a webinar presented by Commission President, Iain Ross on 7th May 2020, unfair dismissal claims increased by 60% in April compared to April last year and general protection cases involving dismissal increased more than 20%.

Click here for more information on this case at Keypoint Law.

Image: DC Super Heroes at Warner Bros. Movie World, courtesy of VRTP. Image used for illustrative purposes only.