An unfair dismissal case was filed recently with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission by a Mr D.Allingham of Kalgoorlie, against the world’s largest gold mining company, Barrick Asia Pacific, a Canadian based company. The company fired the employee for abandoning his position while he was on sick leave suffering both depression and anxiety. The company was allegedly informed of his illness and sick leave was approved to seek treatment at a Community Mental Health Clinic. The case states that after some miscommunication between the depression-suffering employee and the company, Barrick issued a written warning letter instructing the employee to contact his supervisor or else the employee would be dismissed. However, due to company internal mail delays and the Christmas mail rush the employee didn’t receive the warning until two working days after the deadline. When the employee contacted the company immediately the letter was received, a decision to terminate employment had already been enacted. An appeal to consider canceling the employee’s termination based on the late letter delivery was refused. The employee had worked for the company for eleven years.

Well-known public identities such as the former West Australian State Premier Geoff Gallop have suffered depression related illnesses and when help was sought from qualified medical specialists they have managed to successfully return to work (Geoff is now head of the Sydney University Graduate School of Government). Other well-known personalities are playing a vital role in the fight against depression such as the ex-Victorian State Premier Geoff Kennett who is chairman of the BeyondBlue mental health organization. With the recent nationwide awareness campaign highlighting anxiety and depression, have large Australian companies got the message that their valuable human resources are just that, only human? Although Barrick Gold provides a counseling service for employees, it is debatable whether middle managers understand the message about the effects of mental illnesses such as depression in outback Australia. The illness still has a certain stigma in the community where people feel uncomfortable discussing the subject and the sufferer may be thought of as ‘weak’, with terms such as “Toughen Up” commonplace in the relatively conservative male-dominated mining communities in Australia.

Coming so near to the Christmas period for the ex-Barrick Gold employee now without a job, this decision could be viewed as an act of Scrooge. With the Barrick company colors being gold and blue, the company apparently knows how to mine gold but do they understand how to go beyond blue?


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