A FIFO worker earning $130,000 a year has been sacked after she drunkenly sexually harassed two male colleagues inside a Qantas lounge and on a flight.
Evelyn Josey, who worked for OS MCAP, BHP’s internal labor recruitment provider, was dismissed from her role just before Christmas last year for serious misconduct.
He took the matter to the Fair Work Commission and last week it rejected his claim for unfair dismissal.
She had asked for compensation equivalent to six months and to be reinstated in her old job.
But Commissioner Sharon Durham found his firing neither harsh nor unreasonable.
Ms Josey was found to have sexually harassed her colleagues by rubbing her body against one of them in the airport lounge, resting her head on another’s lap while on the plane and repeatedly grabbing his hand.
Josey had arrived at Brisbane Airport to fly to Moranbah, a mining town in eastern Queensland where the Duania mine is located, on July 18 last year, ahead of his shift the next day.
She had been drinking that afternoon and was “extremely intoxicated” when she arrived at the Qantas lounge, where several of her co-workers were.
A $130,000-a-year FIFO worker was fired after she drunkenly sexually harassed two male colleagues inside a Qantas airport lounge and on a flight (file image)
Some of his colleagues described Josey’s behavior as “out of character and quite erratic” when he ordered two bourbons and a Coke at the bar.
She approached one of her colleagues at the bar, turned her body towards him and rubbed against him, the FWC heard.
Once aboard the flight, Josey sat next to another colleague, placed her head in his lap, grabbed his arm, and intertwined her fingers with his.
“That particular day I was having a bit of a tough time and I didn’t really feel like going to work and I started drinking really early,” he said.
He admitted that he had turned to alcohol in December 2021 when his relationship with his partner of 26 years broke down.
He said he developed a drinking problem and also suffered from mental health problems.
After drunken encounters with co-workers, Josey told his shift manager that he was not fit to work the next day and instead took five weeks of leave.
Commissioner Durham accepted that she has been sober since the incidents.
Josey also claimed that she apologized to the colleague she had slept with during the flight and asked him to forgive her.
There were accusations that he had also touched the penis of a colleague he had rubbed against in the bar, but these claims were unsubstantiated.
However, both men said they were concerned about Ms Josey’s behaviour, with one nervous about flying with her again and the other worried about where she lived because she had left him at home on one occasion.
Josey, who is Indigenous, denied sexually harassing colleagues and instead said she herself had seen or been subjected to “overt racism, misogyny and sexual harassment.”
She argued that they should transfer her somewhere else and allow her to keep her job.
He claimed he had a drink in the Qantas lounge and when he went to put the glass on the table, he missed and spilled ice on the floor.
Josey was found to have sexually harassed his colleagues by rubbing his body against one of them in the Qantas Lounge at Brisbane Airport (pictured).
She alleged that her colleagues then laughed at her and she moved to another table.
Josey also claimed that if the incident had occurred as alleged, it was after hours with a friend.
Regarding the incident on the plane, the FIFO worker stated that she was asleep “and as such, would not have had the capacity to make any conscious decision that constituted sexual harassment”, the FWC heard.
His male colleague said he pretended to be asleep and “played dead,” but the unwanted touching continued throughout the hour-and-a-half flight.
He said he was worried that Josey might have caused a scene if he asked her to stop, as she seemed drunk and erratic.
“As the stewardesses passed by, he gave them a look as if to say, ‘I don’t want to be here,'” the commission heard.
Commissioner Durham said that while Ms Josey’s level of intoxication may have had an impact, it “does not and cannot excuse” her behaviour.
His application for unfair dismissal was rejected.
