![\"Fair](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cce111b6a1d9139cff3533b769f78a31.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA mining site worker has been awarded almost $10,000 after being sacked for a drunken \u201cnaked\u201d swim at an office party after it could not be determined whether he had completely stripped off.<\/p>\n
Lester Box, a former cleaning work hospitality and catering company Sirrom, was sacked over the events of a Christmas party that he was \u201ctoo drunk to remember\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Fair Work Commission ruled in his favour after the company failed to provide concrete evidence or testimony that he was naked.<\/p>\n
Mr Box was amongst the five employees who were drinking throughout the night at a party on a coal mine camp.<\/p>\n
They had moved to the pool area around 8pm and stayed there for several hours.<\/p>\n
Mr Box said he consumed about eight or nine drinks and had been egged on by other workers to jump in the pool nude at around 10pm.<\/p>\n
He was sacked without notice as Sirrom determined his alleged naked swimming \u201cposed a significant safety, behavioural, and reputational risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
Several of Mr Box\u2019s colleagues told Sirrom they saw him jump in the pool while nude but none testified during the hearing or provided written statements.<\/p>\n
He was being cheered on during the alleged naked swim, while one other worker also jumped in the pool while nude, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
The mining camp had rules against naked swimming, however, there were no rules against drinking after 10pm.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Box argued that he had been told by another colleague that he was in the pool for a few minutes but was wearing underwear.<\/p>\n
He said he woke up in his \u201cboardies\u201d on his \u201cquick dries\u201d the next morning.<\/p>\n
Mr Box also claimed he was targeted due to his \u201csexual orientation\u201d. No further details were provided about this in the case.<\/p>\n
The sacked worker was also not shown evidence of being naked in the pool, despite requesting video footage.<\/p>\n
This footage was only available through Sirrom\u2019s client, but the company \u201crelied on hearsay\u201d for the case.<\/p>\n
The Fair Work Commission ruled that Mr Box\u2019s sacking was unfair as it could not be proven he was naked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Respondent\u2019s poor evidentiary case does not support a finding that he was naked in the pool,\u201d the ruling says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these circumstances, I am unable to reach a firm conclusion, on the balance of probabilities that the alleged conduct occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this basis I am unable to conclude that there was a valid reason for the dismissal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Box was paid $9,543 for the dismissal, equivalent to six weeks\u2019 salary for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mining site worker has been awarded almost $10,000 after being sacked for a drunken \u201cnaked\u201d swim at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,20756,20757,304397,304398,304399,51844,304400],"class_list":{"0":"post-627914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-fair-work-commission","12":"tag-fwc","13":"tag-lester-box","14":"tag-mining-worker","15":"tag-sirrom","16":"tag-unfair-dismissal","17":"tag-worker-sacked"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}