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A recruitment consultant was terminated after his 4-year employment with a
recruitment agency ("agency"). 12 months after the termination of his employment,
the former employee now claims that he suffered from acute depression and anxiety
attacks from alleged racial discrimination during his employment. He claims that he
was the subject of consistent verbal humiliation, as well as denial of sick leave requests
and opportunities for training and promotion which were offered to other employees.
He lodges a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission,
seeking damages as well as past and future medical expenses.
The agency rejects the claim, pointing to several instances of the former employee's
absenteeism, failure to provide medical certificates and falsification of timesheets. The
agency claims that procedural fairness was provided to the recruitment consultant in
his termination.
When defending the claim, the agency is unable to produce complete records for the
terminated employee from its archives. The Court weighs up the evidence available in
the circumstances and finds that the agency has breached the applicable discrimination
legislation, ordering it to pay its former employee damages and costs in the order of
$70,000.
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