A sacked 27-year paint shop worker at Toyota Australia’s Altona factory has been found ‘unfairly dismissed’.
Adrian Tainsh started with Toyota Australia in 1988 but was let go on June 2, 2016 from his position as general foreperson in the paint shop.
Tainsh, who previously earned a $135,000 salary, has been awarded $70,000 in compensation by the Fair Work Commission due to unsubstantiated claims of inappropriate personal relationships with co-workers.
Image: LinkedIn
His termination notice cited a failure “to perform his supervisory duties…in a consistent and fair manner,” after allegations that female ‘temporary fixed term’ employees were supposedly given special consideration by Tainsh due to his position and claims he was having intimate personal relationships with them.
Toyota’s position was that Tainsh had “engaged in conduct which breached the TMCA Workplace Relationships Policy and Procedure and the Workplace Agreement,” the commission heard.
However, commissioner Katrina Harper-Greenwell dismissed Toyota HR’s position that Tainsh “fostered an exclusionary culture” and “improperly exercised the power and authority held”.
These statements were based on whistle-blower claims that he spent time with one female employee in the communal “group room with the lights off” for half an hour.
Tainsh rebutted the claim saying, “visibility was good” and no lights were deliberately off.
Another account accused Tainsh of granting temporary fixed-term female employee April de Leon unentitled leave, but was also refuted by Tainsh given they weren’t in a relationship at that point.
Tainsh was also responsible for de Leon’s contract renewal in the same area as her ex-husband Mr Aban.
Tainsh was accused of having a relationship with the de Leon after “rumours circulating within TMCA, being that he was regularly drinking at a pub after the afternoon shift with a select group of young female TFTs referred to as “Adrian’s girls”, engaging in a relationship of a sexual nature with de Leon, and that he only hired young, Asian women,” the commissioner states.
Harper-Greenwell says Toyota’s HR diversity and workplace agreement manager was told by de Leon she had resigned after being confronted about the rumours because, “she believed (ex-husband) Mr Aban was involved in TMCA’s decision to interfere in her personal life and that if management wanted to get involved in her divorce and personal matters then she had no choice but to leave.”
Toyota engaged an external investigator to “conduct a confidential investigation”.
Tainsh, who was also an Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union senior representative, had requested reinstatement in his role, however that was deemed “not appropriate” by Fair Work.
Commissioner Harper-Greenwell says while refuting the claims of inappropriate conduct because “relationships of a personal nature form within the workplace”, she highlights concern “engaging in a relationship of a personal nature with a TFT employee that he was responsible for supervising without disclosing this to management at TMCA, particularly in light of the significant difference in their positions.
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Law firm McDonald Murholme told SmartCompany both parties put valid evidence forward.
“Toyota did have sufficient evidence, including witness evidence, to convince the commissioner that at least some of the allegations were substantiated or partially substantiated,” says principle partner Trent Hancock.
“However, the commissioner was not convinced that the allegations…were serious enough to warrant termination,” he says.
“SME owners should be mindful however that it is not unlawful for employees to have personal relationships in the workplace.
In fact, in Victoria, it is unlawful to treat an employee unfavourably because of that employee’s lawful sexual activity,” Hancock explains.
Toyota told SmartCompany in a statement it won’t be commenting further and it, “takes compliance with our code of ethics and workplace relation policy, along with the health and wellbeing of all employees, very seriously”.
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