How Well do Your Employees Know Your Policies?

There has been a slew of recent cases around unfair dismissal related to breach of employment policies. 
It is best practice for employers to ensure that their policies and procedures are properly communicated and understood by employees, especially in circumstances where the policy relates to important topics such as the health and safety of employees.

A failure to meet this standard was communicated in Hancock v Sydney International Container Terminals Pty Limited [2025] FWC 516, where the Fair Work Commission found against the employer and reinstated the employee who was dismissed following a random drug and alcohol test. In this case, poor communication of important policy changes (the change being a 0.00 BAC) meant that the dismissal was deemed harsh and unreasonable.

Moreover, in the case of Ramlan Abdul Samad v Phosphate Resources Ltd T/A Christmas Island Phosphates [2024] FWC 2868, a Christmas Island truck driver was terminated from his employment for breaching the company code of conduct on several occasions. In addition to other failings, it was found that a 30-minute toolbox session was not an adequate timeframe for communicating conduct expectations to employees.

Employment policies are an important way to communicate and manage expectations of behaviour of employees and can be useful to rely on if terminating an employee for poor conduct. However, it is critical that employees understand and are aware of these policies and procedures to ensure reliance on them is defensible.  This can include dedicated and regular training sessions, adequate induction for all new staff, sign off sheets indicating understanding of materials, emailing important changes to reliable email addresses and including updates in staff meetings.