The Fair Work Commission has ruled a trucking company was within its rights to dismiss a driver after he set the temperature of a trailer full of ice cream nearly 20 degrees too warm.
Jeremiah Manly worked as a linehaul truck driver for ERH Refrigerated Transport, and was tasked on December 3 with collecting a load of ice cream from Truganina in Melbourne’s west and driving it north to Wagga Wagga.
However, instead of the required -22 degrees Celsius, the trailer temperature had been set to -1C.
During the journey back, the load defrosted, and more than $73,000 worth of ice cream had to be thrown out. ERH said an additional $30,000 was required to dispose of the melted ice cream.
Mr Manly was fired later that week, but took his case to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) arguing unfair dismissal.
According to the commission’s ruling, Mr Manly said he could recall setting the temperature at the correct level, but had no explanation as to why the setting “didn’t take”.
He also conceded that despite having several opportunities to check the temperature in the trailer on the drive back to Wagga Wagga, he failed to do so.
The commission found Jeremiah Manly had six opportunities on the drive to Wagga Wagga to check the trailer’s temperature. (Wikimedia: Bidgee)
But the driver submitted to the commission that he was not solely responsible for the loss of the load.
Mr Manly argued that the cold storage company should not have loaded the truck with the temperature so warm, and that a secondary driver who had been tasked with driving the ice cream onwards from Wagga Wagga to Sydney had also been fired.
FWC Commissioner Damian Sloan rejected the arguments, saying it was not necessary for Mr Manly to be solely responsible for the blunder in order for ERH to have a valid reason to dismiss him.
“Whatever [the cold storage facility] policies and procedures may be … or what the other driver may have done or not done, Mr Manly failed to set the temperature in the trailer correctly and failed to check the temperature during the trip,” he said in his ruling.
“The possibility that others may also have failed to do what was required of them does not exonerate Mr Manly from any failure on his part.”
Mr Sloan said while the mistake that led to the ice cream melting was effectively a “one-off” across hundreds of similar trips, there was a valid reason for the dismissal.
