A BlueScope worker may have been cleared of defecating in a shower by the Fair Work Commission – but he still didn’t get his job back.
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Coke plant gas regulator Walter Troiano was appealing his sacking in 2017 for “inappropriate and socially unacceptable behaviour and unacceptable timekeeping”.
The “unacceptable behaviour” related to a claim from his supervisor that he pooed in the shower at the end of his shift on June 5, 2017.
Faeces had been found in the shower after Mr Troiano had finished but he denied doing the deed.
He claimed the blocked shower drain had no grate and “floaty stuff” started flowing out.
He said he then used his hands and feet to try and “push the floating material back down the drain”.
Plant operations manager Victoria Collins told the commission she felt Mr Troiano was the shower shitter because “when he failed to unblock the drain he continued his shower even after he had discovered the faeces in the water”.
She said he could have moved to another shower but chose to stay “in the polluted shower”.
Mr Troiano said, because he was wearing thongs while showering, he felt safe.
Commissioner Bernie Riordan said sacking him over the shit was not “a valid reason to terminate Mr Troiano’s employment”.
“I do not accept that Mr Troiano possesses the human qualities, or lack thereof, to deliberately defecate in the shower”.
However, it was a different story when it came to the problem of leaving work early.
A review of his security pass by BlueScope found at least 17 instances where he left work early; in one instance as much as six hours early.
The average amount of time he was away during those 17 12-hour shifts was one hour and 52 minutes.
Mr Troiano said the absences were so he could give his “second car a run” or to meet tradespeople at home; he said the absences had been approved.
He also claimed there was a flexible arrangement the coke plant regarding the times workers could knock off.
Ms Collins said an analysis of his colleagues’ work patterns showed no such culture of leaving early.
Commissioner Riordan said Mr Troiano adopted a “carefree attitude” to his timekeeping.
“I do not accept that leaving [the] site, on what could almost be described as a regular or systematic basis … could be condoned or regarded as being reasonable,” Commissioner Riordan wrote in his judgement.
“I find that Mr Troiano’s poor timekeeping provides BlueScope with a valid reason to terminate Mr Troiano’s employment.”
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
