She went off to have her baby and was recorded as resigned

Alyssa Silcock was five months pregnant when she started as a part-time crew member at Burger Urge’s Forster store in May 2024. She told her managers she would take about six months off after the birth and come back. Before she left, the team gave her a card wishing her “Enjoy your time off”, and the store manager texted “I’ll see you in 6 months hopefully”. Her last shift was on 27 August 2024.

In November her staff discount and staff login stopped working. In December the company’s HR told her it had “registered your resignation” and sent her an offboarding checklist. She had never resigned, and she had never seen the form. The store manager admitted making the mark next to Ms Silcock’s name, and the judge did not accept her explanation for it.

Judge Doust found Ms Silcock had not resigned, so processing her as a resignation was a dismissal. Under s 351 of the Fair Work Act the employer then had to prove that her pregnancy and family responsibilities were not reasons for it.

It did. The store manager had been in the job only a few weeks, got “unhelpful advice” from above, and was found to be “out of her depth”. Whether it was a “misunderstanding” or expedience, she was not acting because of the pregnancy, and she had shown no animus. The judge said the employer’s handling “left a great deal to be desired” and that Ms Silcock’s sense of betrayal was “entirely justified”.

Her other claims failed too. With under 12 months’ service she had no legal right to unpaid parental leave, so taking time off was not a protected “workplace right”. The claim was dismissed.