A South Australian man has been sacked after his employer found photos on social media of him at a wedding when he was supposed to be on sick leave.
Daniel Smyth, a former employee at Alwyndor Aged Care, applied for leave after returning from an 81 day stint in jail over driving offences.
After having his leave request was denied, he presented two medical certificates covering June 8 to July 18, 2016 – the period he had earlier sought leave for, The Advertiser reports.
Mr Smyth – who suffers from depression and bipolar – was dismissed from the company after it discovered photos of him celebrating at a wedding in India.
Daniel Smyth, former employee at Alwyndor Aged Care (pictured), was sacked after his boss found photos on social media of him at a wedding when he was supposed to be on sick leave
A South Australian Employment Tribunal decided the social media posts were reason enough for the Hove nursing home to sack Mr Smyth.
‘During this period of time off, Alwyndor became aware of Facebook posts that indicated Mr Smyth was in India attending the marriage of a relative of his wife,’ tribunal commissioner Paul McMahon said.
The aged care facility accused Mr Smyth of exaggerating his medical conditions to attend the occasion – which wouldn’t have been the first time.
The tribunal was told he presented a sick note for the two days of his daughter’s baptism in January 2016, after his request for leave was refused.
Mr Smyth said it was a coincidence the dates of his medical leave coincided with his pre-booked tickets to India for the wedding.
Mr Smyth – who suffers from depression and bipolar – was dismissed from the company after it discovered photos of him celebrating at a wedding in India
He admitted to refusing to answer questions from Alwyndor when asked if he had mislead them into giving him time off.
Travis Hill, the general manager at the time, explained how he thought Mr Smyth had exaggerated his illness just so he could attend the wedding.
Mr Hill said his former employee acted ‘arrogant’ in their final meeting, and behaved in a ‘you can’t touch me’ manner.
In his decision, Commissioner McMahon said it was likely Mr Smyth suffered from genuine illness at the time of the issue, but the aged care home had reasonable grounds to suspect it was being misled.