We’ve all made blunders on the internet: accidentally liking an ex’s new partner’s IG pic mid-stalk, sending a screenshot to the person whose message you’d just screenshot, replying all on an email intended to go to a singular person. Turns out, the last one can land you in some pretty hot water, which is exactly what happened to a Brisbane teacher whose reply-all gaffe cost him his 22-year career.
According to news.com.au, Stanislaw Koseik‘s long-standing employment at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane’s north ended suddenly after an email in which he criticised “the big end of town”.
The former science teacher’s unfair dismissal case was taken to the Fair Work Commission. Now, in an online judgment, a Federal Court has ordered the case go to trial, with Koseik seeking re-employment, compensation and penalties.
The judgment detailed that Koseik was fired in August after writing an email containing “inappropriate comments about a fellow employee”. It was allegedly supposed to go to his union representative but instead was sent to “a large number of recipients”. Whoopsies!
The February 17 email reportedly started with Koseik detailing how his “old recent brain” recalled a time when “serious breaches, glitches [and] minor problems were resolved calmly, professionally and successfully”.
It continued: “Now, within the last 2 years the same long term staff continue to [be] amazing! However, recently leadership in the IT area has been less than adequate.
“Continuous leaning on past breaches for excuses for not getting current breaches … We have amazing IT staff but recently the big end of town stop [sic] feeding at the pool tuck shop and live up to their $250,000 job”.
The Federal Court judgment stated the teacher “withdrew the offending emailed comment” on February 19 “by replying to the same recipients”.
The head of Marist College, Michael Newman, reportedly met with Koseik about his email and told him the comments caused “great upset”. At that stage, he was stood down on paid leave while the correspondence was investigated.
Per the judgment, Newman was concerned the email could amount to bullying and breached the school’s code of conduct and employee privacy.
Things went from bad to worse, however, when Koseik travelled to Bali while he was stood down.
Between April and May, he was approved to take sick leave instead of using long service leave during his standdown period, having provided management with a medical certificate.
On May 11, Koseik emailed the school’s deputy head to inform him that last year, he had “arranged for an overseas holiday” from May 12 to May 23, at a time when he had approved long service leave. He detailed that his medical advice was that he could travel overseas, and considering he was stood down, he was applying for leave without pay for the duration of his trip.
Following the internal investigation of his original email, the school decided that Koseik wouldn’t be punished beyond a formal warning.
He returned to teaching on July 11 and directly emailed the head of IT to apologise for his February 17 email. However, just weeks after returning to work, Koseik was terminated.
He was issued with a letter from Marist College that blamed his axing on travelling to Bali during a “period of alleged unfitness” and while on sick leave.
The letter also stated his apology to the head of IT was “not considered adequate” as he was “lawfully and reasonably directed” to issue the apology via the college’s deputy head.
“It appears that you have demonstrated a pattern of falling short of the standards required by your Employment Agreement, the College’s Code of Conduct and policies and our Marist values,” the letter read.
In Federal Court, Justice Berna Joan Collier ruled there was a “serious question to be tried that the termination of the applicant’s employment was because of his exercise of a right to complain about his supervisor.”
She also stated that Koseik “had been completely honest” about the “basis on which he wished to travel to Bali”.
Justice Collier further ordered “that the substantive issues be heard as soon as possible by a judge of this court”.
Jeepers. Keep an eye on that reply-all button, y’all — the domino effect is wild.
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