Court reinstates sacked worker who refused to work overtime

A court has ordered the reinstatement of a worker who was sacked by an aquarium fish company after he refused overtime work.

Adam Brown was employed by Premier Pet as a fish keeper and was dismissed after he refused to work occasional overtime for routine maintenance required on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Premier Pet introduced a new mandatory roster to incorporate the routine maintenance to try and share the load between all employees. It was a change from the previous roster where a few employees had regularly conducted this maintenance on a voluntary overtime basis.

Brown said he only wanted to work his scheduled 38 hours a week, with occasional overtime, and objected to the requirement to work overtime on weekends. He also requested to receive time in lieu for his weekend overtime work, which was refused by Premier Pet.

The Federal Magistrates Court found Premier Pet did not meet "the onus on it to demonstrate it did not terminate [Brown's] employment for the reasons that he asserts".

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