Question

Lisa works in Mugs Coffee, a café on a university campus, about 15 hours per week as a casual employee. She has been working at Mugs for eighteen months. Lisa has worked regular shifts which she coordinates by agreement with the Mugs owner, around her university timetable. The café pays its staff well and working conditions and the work environment have been good, at least, they were until about three months ago.  While the café where Lisa works, which is open Monday to Saturdays, only employs about 10 staff in total, Mug’s Coffee has four other branches across Sydney’s universities.    

Three months ago, a new manager was appointed:  Desley Snake. Snake has started playing around with Lisa’s shifts. Lisa is no longer finding she can plan her life around her old regular routine.

The new manager, Desley, refuses to confirm Lisa’s shifts more than 48 hours in advance, and the uncertainty makes Lisa anxious. Her weekly working hours have remained the same, but several times she has been moved from her preferred Thursday or Friday shifts in favour of a new barista.  As a result of the uncertainty, Lisa has phoned Desley on several occasions in an attempt to find out her shifts earlier. Desley’s response has been to yell at Lisa on the phone, calling her a ‘demanding whinger, with tickets on herself, who thinks she is more valuable to Mugs than she is’. This has happened several times now, and Lisa is becoming quite scared of calling Desley. She feels like she is being bullied. Each time she has phoned, Lisa has lost one of her preferred shifts.

This morning, despite feeling uncomfortable about it, Lisa phoned Desley to ask about her shifts. It is Tuesday already, she has not received her schedule from Snake, and it is very important to her that she work both Thursday and Friday this week. When she asked Desley for information about her work schedule, Desley screamed at her down the phone, saying: ‘If you continue to irritate me with these phone calls, you will be out of a job, Missy. The system is, you wait for the email telling you what your shifts are, like everyone else. Call me again, and you’re out the door.’

1. is she entitled to make a claim under the Fair Work Act that she has been bullied? What are Lisa’s legal rights here and what remedies could she seek?

Answer 1

Lisa is not entitled to make a claim under the Fair Work Act as she is a casual worker and workers for only 15 hours per week. However, she can register complaint against the act of bullying and verbal insult done by the new manager, Desley. He is not allowed to insult Lisa and cause her mental harassement.