Marianne Troop v Spastic Centre of New South Wales [1996] IRCA 40

DECISION NO: 40/96 Industrial Relations Court of Australia New South Wales District Registry Matter No.: NI 95/1519 Between: Marianne TROOP Applicant AND: Spastic Centre of New South Wales Respondent Place: Sydney Date: 18 September, 17 November 1995 Before: Tomlinson JR Reasons for decision By application dated the 23 March 1995 the applicant Marianne Troop sought reinstatement and compensation. At the commencement of the hearing of this matter the applicant indicated she was not seeking re-instatement, but compensation. In her evidence in chief the applicant stated she began in 1993 as a bookkeeper for Data Entry Base Services ("DEBS"), a division of the Spastic Centre of New South Wales whose head office is situated at 189 Allambie Road Allambie. In the course of her employment with the respondent the applicant was responsible for some 14 staff members. The applicant and one other person, Lisa were the only able-bodied members of staff.

The applicant told the court she had answered an advertisement for a manager/bookkeeper and attended an interview with Mr Bob White, an executive with the respondent Spastic Centre. By way of explanation the applicant stated that DEBS is a business unit, having been set up with funding from the Commonwealth Government, and that the applicant in her capacity as an employee of DEBS reported to the Spastic Centre at Allambie Heights. In order to earn revenue and to gainfully employ incapacitated people the DEBS business unit contracted out it's book-keeping and office services on a commercial basis.

At the time of her commencement the revenue of DEBS was $500.00 per month and that when the applicant left the employment on 23 March 1995 the revenue of DEBS was some $81,000.00 a year, DEBS supplying bookkeeping and data-entry services to individual clients.