s.365 - Application to deal with contraventions involving dismissal

Application to deal with contraventions involving dismissal - provisional view - section 587 - dismissal for want of prosecution.

• [1] Ms Savannah Sculli (Applicant) has made an application to the Commission pursuant to section 365 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act), in which she alleges she was dismissed in contravention of Part 3-1 of the Act. The Application was made on 4 June 2025 and alleged that the dismissal took effect on 13 May 2025. The Application was therefore made one day outside of the 21-day period provided for in section 366 of the Act for applications of this type.

• [2] There have been difficulties in progressing this matter. On 7 October 2025, I provided a Statement to the parties setting out the procedural history of the matter and expressing a provisional view that the application should be dismissed on the Commission's own initiative for want of prosecution. The procedural history notably included a failure by the Applicant to comply with directions, a consequential adjournment and the conversion of the adjourned listing for the determination of the extension of time application into a listing for a non-compliance hearing due to the Applicant's failure to provide required material. The Statement informed the parties that the non-compliance hearing (scheduled for 10 October 2025) provided an opportunity for the Applicant to dissuade me of this provisional view and/or otherwise for the parties to put a position on how this matter ought to be dealt with.

• [3] The Applicant did not attend the non-compliance hearing. This fact alone, viewed in the context of the procedural history of the matter more generally, provides a sufficient basis to confirm the provisional view previously expressed. However, lest there be any doubt about that, when the Applicant was contacted by chambers concerning her non-attendance, she advised that she did not wish to proceed with her application. The Applicant was asked to confirm this in writing, but to date has not done so. In all the circumstances, it is clear that the Application should be dismissed.

• [4] An Order giving effect to this decision is published separately.[1]

[1] PR793098.

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