Chowdhury v Industrial Relations Secretary on behalf of Department of Communities and Justice [2021] NSWIRComm 1092

Industrial Relations Commission New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Chowdhury v Industrial Relations Secretary on behalf of Department of Communities and Justice [2021] NSWIRComm 1092 Hearing dates: 7 and 8 October 2021 Date of orders: 6 December 2021 Decision date: 06 December 2021 Jurisdiction: Industrial Relations Commission Before: Commissioner Murphy Decision: Application dismissed Catchwords: UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Client Services Officer – sustained allegations of falsifying Client Service Visit checklists – no procedural or substantive unfairness in dismissal Legislation Cited: Industrial Relations Act 1996 Residential Tenancies Act 2010 Cases Cited: Nil Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Rayhan Chowdhury (Applicant)

Industrial Relations Secretary on behalf of Department of Communities and Justice (Respondent) Representation: Applicant was self-represented

Counsel: Mr K Brotherson (Respondent) File Number(s): 2021/00215078 Publication restriction: See [2]-[3]

decision 1. The applicant, Rayhan Chowdhury, was formerly employed as a temporary Client Services Officer (CSO) on a number of temporary employment contracts in Parramatta Housing Services (PHS) within the Department of Communities and Justice (Department). His employment commenced on 18 May 2020 and was due to cease on 31 July 2021. However, the applicant's employment was terminated with effect from 23 July 2021 on the basis of sustained allegations of misconduct by him. On 27 July 2021, the applicant filed in the Office of the Industrial Registrar an Application for Relief in relation to Unfair Dismissal (Application). This decision determines the Application. 2. On the first day of the hearing, at the request of the respondent, the Industrial Relations Secretary on behalf of the Department, I made the following non-publication orders pursuant to s 164A of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (Act): 1. Tenants of public housing pursuant to the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 are to be identified in transcript and in any published decision of the Commission by their initials, and their address only by suburb. 2. Any document that includes the name of a public housing tenant or their address that is tendered in evidence shall be a confidential exhibit. 3. Except in so far as it is necessary to do so for the proper conduct of the proceedings, no person shall disclose the name, address, picture or any other material that identifies, or may lead to the identification of any public housing tenant or their address. 4. Except in so far as it is necessary to do so for the proper conduct of the proceedings, no person shall do any thing that identifies, or may lead to the identification of any public housing tenant or their address. 1. Unfortunately, when the transcript of the proceedings was produced it did contain the names of some public housing tenants. As a consequence, I have vacated order 1 set out above and, in its place, have made the following orders: 1. Tenants of public housing pursuant to the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 are to be identified in any published decision of the Commission by their initials, and their address only by suburb. 1A. The transcript of the proceedings will be kept confidential and not released to any person except on the express order of the Commission.