A special constable's sacking was upheld after he mock "dry humped" a colleague while she was on the phone, talked about metal piercings on his penis and boasted of sexual conquests.
While working as a security guard at Parliament House in Sydney he would see females on CCTV screens and say words to the effect "I f----d her" or "I f----d her friend".
![Illustration: Michael Mucci.](/web/20170130102737im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/4/z/o/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtz761.png/1485462938367.jpg)
NSW Industrial Relations Commissioner John Murphy dismissed the officer's application for unfair dismissal and found he had engaged in serious misconduct.
The IRC heard the officer had a long and distinguished history of service including a commendation for bravery after he disarmed a mentally ill man armed with a knife in the Sydney Police Centre.
![Former Bairnsdale police officer Narelle McKenna won a landmark 1998 Anti-Discrimination Tribunal payout of $125,000 for ...](/web/20170130102737im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/8/9/g/t/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gtz761.png/1485462938367.jpg)
He was also the first officer to apprehend a dangerous offender during a bomb scare in Macquarie Street several years ago.
However, his jokes about having sex with chickens and boasts of having piercings and "ball bearings on his penis" to female colleagues including those he propositioned, were inappropriate and offensive.
One female colleague gave evidence the officer mock "dry humped" her with his tongue out while she was on the phone at work. He denied the allegation.
The officer was said to have claimed he watched SBS on night shift because it helped him learn proper English from the subtitles and because "there is porn on there".
The IRC heard he had asked female colleagues to suck his genitals and asked them if they had had engaged in anal sex.
The special constable denied many of the allegations but conceded he regularly made sexually driven "jokes" in the workplace.
His attempts to dissuade female colleagues from making complaints against his alleged sexual harassment were described as bullying and intimidation.
The officer argued the workplace culture included swearing and sexually explicit language and that most people told offensive jokes.
However, Commissioner Murphy said "the bottom line is that it was the applicant alone who was responsible for his conduct".
"The picture that emerges from the whole of the evidence is that the applicant's conduct stood out from that of his colleagues in the workplace," Mr Murphy said.
He said the line between acceptable and unacceptable conduct in the workplace "will not always be properly drawn".
"The exact positioning of that line may vary significantly from workplace to workplace."
What was considered as acceptable interaction between workers on an offshore oil rig or underground coal mine might vary from a "more genteel setting, such as the staff room of a primary school".
"Despite the inherent difficulty in drawing the line, there will be cases where the conduct of an individual employee falls so deeply within 'unacceptable territory' that it is difficult to contemplate that any reasonable person would regard the termination of that employee's employment for such conduct as unfair," Mr Murphy said.
The Fair Work Commission in 2014 upheld the dismissal of a Western Australian dockhand who used colourful language towards his supervisor and colleagues on multiple occasions.
However, in a decision last year the Fair Work Commission criticised a company chief executive for using inappropriate language and for sacking a worker by text message after the worker called the executive "an old c---". While the employee's conduct would ordinarily warrant dismissal, when balanced with the CEO's inappropriate conduct, it was found to be unfair.
Describing the special constable as an "unimpressive witness" whose responses under cross-examination were vague and evasive, Mr Murphy concluded his misconduct was "extremely serious".
"He displayed a complete disregard for the sensitivities of his work colleagues, especially the young female officers who were the target of his sexual harassment and bullying."
Mr Murphy said he determined the sacking was "neither harsh, unreasonable nor unjust".
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