Manager wins dismissal case

A HOBART bottle shop manager has won an unfair dismissal battle despite a Fair Work commissioner finding he sexually harassed a female customer by asking her “would you like a root hehehe receipt”.

David Bridge, widely described as a “humorous character” and a “legend” in his online reviews, was sacked by Globe Bottleshops on March 19 for serious misconduct after the comment a week earlier.

The Fair Work Commission, despite finding the Wellington Centre Cellarbrations manager did make the “unacceptable” comment, said he had suffered a “flawed investigation process” and his dismissal was “procedurally disastrous”.

Nevertheless, in her newly published decision, Commissioner Katrina HarperGreenwell disagreed Mr Bridge would have worked for another 15 to 20 years if not for the unfair dismissal.

Instead, Ms HarperGreenwell awarded him compensation of $3000 plus superannuation after estimating he only would have stayed employed a further two weeks given his relationship with the company director, plus other issues with his conduct.

“The allegation was that Mr Bridge had said to a female customer, ‘would you like a root hehehe receipt’, and laughed and leered at her in an attempt to make her feel uncomfortable, and that, on each occasion she has regularly visited the store, he had spoken rudely to her and made her feel uncomfortable,” she said.

Globe Bottleshops said it was not satisfied with his claims he had no recollection of the conversation and that dismissing him was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable. It also claimed he had been the subject of “many and varied” customer complaints.

But Mr Bridge denied the allegation, claiming he had been “persecuted, bullied and harassed” by the company’s director and that he had “never said anything even close to inappropriate” to any of the 250,000 customers he had served at the shop since 2015.

He argued he had not been afforded due process and a chance to clear his name because he had not been shown CCTV footage of the incident and until the day of the hearing was unaware of the customer’s identity.

He said the director had acted hastily with a one-sided account of the incident and had not interviewed him.

Ms Harper-Greenwell noted Mr Bridge’s online reviews by customers that described him as a “humorous character, an unforgettable character, hilarious, absolutely funny, a legend and that he had brought a good sense of fun and humour to the store”, with similar comments provided by former employees.

“Mr Bridge engaged with customers by making jokes or by humouring them,” she said, adding not all customers enjoyed his style and that he was “at times offensive”.

She accepted while he meant no harm or malice by the comment, it was “unacceptable”. But the commissioner found he had not been afforded procedural fairness, saying the director made up his mind of his employee’s guilt before the inquiry started.