Hamish Griffin ‘outraged’ after sacking from job at Big4 Strahan holiday park for being too fat’

An Australian father’s ‘dream tree change’ was humiliatingly destroyed when he was sacked over his weight after moving his family 3,000km – despite his new boss seeing him before hiring him.

Hamish Griffin posted to social media about the ‘heartbreak and embarrassment’ of his termination just ‘two hours’ into a new role at the Big4 holiday park at Strahan, Tasmania, which left his family ‘homeless’.

Mr Griffin claimed he had only been in the role two days when his employer, the park owner, asked him to help move a sofa, then ‘ripped’ into him saying he wasn’t ‘physically’ capable before dismissing him.

Hamish Griffin posted to social media about the ‘heartbreak and embarrassment’ of his termination just ‘two hours’ into a new role at the Big4 holiday park at Strahan, Tasmania, which left his family ‘homeless’

‘I know there are people in much worse financial positions than us, but essentially we are now homeless, unemployed, with a devastated little boy with no school to go to this year,’ Mr Griffin said. 

He claimed his new employer, the owner of Big4 Strahan Holiday Retreat, justified the decision by speculating that he wouldn’t be able to mow a lawn or climb a ladder, and that any ‘reasonable’ person’ would agree. 

Mr Griffin also claimed the park owner ‘insulted’ him by claiming he’d hidden his ‘medical condition’, which he explained was being ‘obese’.

The park’s owners confirmed in a statement provide to the ABC that they believed Mr Griffin had withheld a medical issue.

Mr Griffin later received legal advice that the perception of a medical issue without evidence could be grounds for a discrimination case.

Mr Griffin, his wife Hazel and young son Freddie, had just arrived in Tasmania after selling most of their possessions to make the journey from Cloncurry, in north-west Queensland where he managed holiday parks for eight years.

He claimed he had been physically capable of performing all tasks required to do his job over that time.

‘Carrying a few extra kilos, in my mind, is not going to inhibit me and hasn’t inhibited me for the last eight years to carry out my duties as a manager of a park,’ Mr Griffin said.

He claimed he had not been given a fair chance ‘to prove I’m capable’.

Instead, his new employer terminated him ‘because he thought I couldn’t do these things, and might cause him liability through injury as I’m too fat’. 

His initial post to  ‘family and friends’ told them he had ‘bad news’.

‘It is with a great deal of heartbreak and considerable embarrassment that I have to advise that the dream tree change to the Apple Isle for the Griffin’s has turned into a nightmare … before it’s even begun.’ 

Mr Griffin claimed he had only been in the role two days when his employer, the park owner, asked him to help move a sofa, then ‘ripped’ into him, saying he wasn’t ‘physically’ capable before dismissing him

Mr Griffin claimed he had been physically capable of performing all tasks required to do his previous job in the same industry

‘I still think this is just a bad dream I’ll wake up from, but the reality and sadness have really set in.’ 

Mr Griffin suggested he was investigating legal action over his ‘outrageous’ sacking.

‘I had completed an interview via video for the job, and had sent him links to [an online] photo, to which he replied “what a lovely photo of you all”,’ he said.

Big4 Holiday Parks at Strahan confirmed the sacking.

The park owners told the ABC that Mr Griffin’s sacking was due to a workplace health issue based on concerns Mr Griffin would harm himself at work.

They also claimed he had withheld a health condition from employers.

Daily Mail Australia approached Big4 Strahan Holiday Retreat for additional comment.