She asked about returning from maternity leave and was let go by text

Samantha Bond was a childcare worker at a small preschool in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, which had only three or four staff. She started there in April 2014 and went on maternity leave in November 2017. In September 2018 she contacted the preschool about her return to work.

The reply came by text message at 4:31pm on 18 September 2018. Unless she had completed her diploma, it said, she "no longer fit the job description", and "my agency ready to go if you try to return". Ms Bond said she had only ever been employed as a Certificate III worker. The preschool later told the Commission her position had been made redundant: enrolments were low, it said, and it could not afford two staff.

The preschool did not come to the hearing or answer the Commission's written questions, and the Commissioner decided the case on the material the parties had filed. The Commissioner accepted there was a valid reason for ending the job: fewer children, and no diploma. The problem was how it was done. The Children's Services Award required the preschool to consult about major workplace changes. It had not, so the dismissal was not a genuine redundancy. Nor had it given her the chance to discuss the change that the Fair Work Act requires for an employee on unpaid parental leave.

Ms Bond was dismissed by text, without warning and with no chance to respond. The Commission found the dismissal harsh and unfair. It ordered nine weeks' pay plus superannuation. That covered time for the discussion that should have happened, her notice, and an extra four weeks because she had not found work in a region with higher than average unemployment.