In an earlier decision in April,Commissioner Donna McKenna found the worker’s dismissal by Sapphire Coast Community Aged Care in Bega was not unfair.
Commissioner McKenna rejected the worker’s unfair dismissal application on the basis that she did not provide evidence of an allergy she claimed had prevented her from getting vaccinated.
On Monday,a majority of the full bench upheld the original decision and dismissed the worker’s application to appeal.
“We do not intend,in the circumstances of the current pandemic,to give any encouragement to a spurious objection to a lawful workplace vaccination requirement,” the ruling said.
Recording her dissent,deputy president Lyndall Dean,in the minority,said the decision had denied the worker protections under the Fair Work Act “in part because of an inference that she holds a general anti-vaccination position”.
“Never have I more strenuously disagreed with an outcome in an unfair dismissal application,” she said.