Dean and Australian Postal Corporation

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2009] AATA 812

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No: 2008/2320

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION		)
Re		BARRY DEAN

Applicant

And AUSTRALIAN POSTAL CORPORATION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Ms N Isenberg, Senior Member

Date22 October 2009

PlaceSydney

Decision The decision under review is affirmed.

...................[sgd]..........................

Ms N Isenberg

Senior Member

LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

5.     The relevant legislation in this matter is the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (“the Act”).

APPLICANT’S EVIDENCE

Work History

6.     Mr Dean gave evidence that he commenced work at Australia Post as a telegram boy in 1979 after completing TAFE.  He worked there until he was involuntarily retired in November 2008.  He had worked his way up, and in 2002 or 2003 an area manager “recognised [his] talents” and he was temporarily promoted to a management position at the St Leonards delivery facility, with a staff of 90 to 100 staff.

7.     In December 2005 he was transferred sideways as manager of the Peakhurst Delivery Centre, with a staff of about 70.  In this position he was responsible for the running of the entire centre, which operated approximately 18 hours a day.  He travelled a round trip of 110 km per day to get to work, often leaving home before dawn and returning when it was already dark.

8.     He took a combination of recreation and long service leave from the job between September 2006 and January 2007.  

9.     In February 2007, he applied for a demotion, halving his pay, and he transferred to the Nepean Delivery Facility, closer to his home.  There he was managing the dock operations for dispatch of mail.  In that position he had no staff.

Personal history prior to Peakhurst

10.   Mr Dean said that prior to starting at Peakhurst, he was “fine” psychologically and psychiatrically. 

11.   He denied he had told Dr Virgona that his childhood was rather difficult and unhappy, but conceded there were unhappy periods, such as when his parents divorced when he was nine.  Prior to his parents’ separation he had a happy early life, although his father was sometimes violent and he got a few “hidings” from him.  He conceded that his father may have been “nervy”, but denied he had told Dr Virgona that his father was a bit of a drinker.  He stayed with his mother until he was 15 and his older brother became the “senior male in the house”.  His brother also dispensed “floggings”, which Mr Dean said were just part of sibling rivalry.

12.   He and his (then) de facto wife commenced their relationship in 1988 and their daughter was born in 1990.  The relationship ended in 1998 when his wife asked him to leave, for reasons he never understood.  He was distressed, because he loved his wife and child.  There followed a protracted custody dispute.  As his daughter grew into her teens, and she and her mother moved to Wollongong, weekend access visits became more difficult and they grew apart.  Nowadays they speak…