The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a nurse who attempted to start a competitor to an ANMF branch, finding that he called in sick and used the time to campaign, repeatedly complained about his colleagues and HR without foundation, and had been “indiscriminately rude”.
Northern Health dismissed the emergency department nurse in February this year, after concluding that he had “committed misconduct by dishonestly taking personal leave and by using disrespectful and inappropriate language in correspondence with a human resources representative”.
Emergency nurse Jimmy Parel attempted in 2024 to establish a rival to the ANMF Victorian branch, and ran in last year’s branch election, but both his quests failed (see related articles here, here, here, here and here).
Early last year, Parel’s team leader complained to the State Government entity that she “felt intimidated by him”. Then in May last year, Parel filed an anti-bullying application in the FWC, in which he claimed that his team leader had bullied him by excluding him from conversations and harassing him over “little things”.
When Parel failed to join the second FWC conference on the matter on September 12 at the scheduled start time, and then participated while driving. The associate asked him to pull over, and he said that he had been out on the road “busy campaigning for the election”.
An ANMF representative allegedly later confirmed that Parel had been at Goulburn Health that day.
Parel had provided Northern Health with a medical certificate that said he had been unfit for work on September 11 and 12. Northern Health said that it did not take any disciplinary action at the time about this alleged misuse of personal leave, because it intended to first resolve Parel’s complaint and his anti-bullying application.
The FWC dismissed Parel’s anti-bullying claim in November when he failed to attend a further conference.
At the end of December last year, a HR consultant told Parel that Northern Health had found his complaint against his team leader and a further complaint unsubstantiated. It proposed to ensure that Parel and the team leader worked separate shifts.
Parel responded that the investigation had involved “outright discrimination” and “rank hypocrisy”, and that if the HR consultant felt “confused” about what this meant “she should consult a dictionary”.
Northern Health sent Parel a “show cause notice” in January alleging that “on 11 and 12 September 2025 he had used personal leave during rostered hours while engaging in ANMF union campaign activities”, and that his message to the HR consultant had been “inappropriate and disrespectful”, in breach of its code of ethics.
Parel responded by denying the allegations and attended a subsequent meeting.
The chief people officer said she believed Parel “had exhibited a pattern of concerning behaviour in his dealings with others and that this was sufficiently serious to justify dismissal because it went beyond a single incident or a moment of poor judgement”.
Northern Health dismissed him in February with five weeks’ pay in lieu of notice.
Parel became “ungovernable”: Northern Health
Northern Health told the Commission that it had received numerous complaints about Parel’s behaviour, including from three critical care nurses who reported that they “felt fearful about providing feedback or direction” to him.
His team leader also complained in December that she felt “extremely uncomfortable and intimidated by an incident on the previous evening’s night shift in which she had looked up from her work and had seen Mr. Parel staring at her and smirking”.
The ANMF told Northern Health it had concerns about Parel’s behaviour towards the team leader and his other superiors.
A nursing unit manager told the Commission that during a conversation with Parel, he “repeatedly spoke over her, was aggressive, and said words to the effect that she was not able to manage departmental challenges”.
He also referred to other staff as “unskilled”, “junior” and incapable and said that it would be better for him to take on the team leader role, because the incumbent “was ‘not capable or confident enough'”.
Northern Health said that Parel had “become ungovernable”.
“It said that Mr. Parel had raised complaints about three different team leaders and members of the human resources team, that he had instituted proceedings in the Commission and then failed to engage with them, that he had challenged the capability and competence of team leaders, and asserted that Northern Health had broken the law and made allegations of corruption without any basis”.
Misuse of personal leave is serious misconduct: FWC
Deputy President Alan Colman said that “If Mr. Parel was fit enough to be out on the road busy campaigning, then he was fit enough to go to work and do his job”.
He found that Parel “knowingly claimed wages to which he was not entitled”, which amounted to serious misconduct.
The deputy president found it reasonable that Northern Health did not act on this matter right away, and instead waited for the anti-bullying and complaint processes to conclude. He concluded that Parel’s dishonesty about having been out campaigning, “when in fact he was”, provided a further valid reason.
Parel said he had “meant that he had been campaigning in recent days” but Deputy President Colman found “this to be redolent of a fictious afterthought designed to fill a forensic hole in Mr. Parel’s evidence”.
Rudeness “indiscriminate” rather than “gender-based”: FWC
Parel’s rudeness to the HR consultant and other employees provided additional valid reasons, the deputy president found.
His comments to the HR consultant had been “one of the many instances in which Mr. Parel was obnoxious to co-workers, and in particular those who occupied a position of authority over him,” Deputy President Colman said.
Northern Health suggested that Parel’s misbehaviour appeared “gender-based”, but Deputy President Colman found Parel “indiscriminately rude”.
He said that the team leader’s complaint about Parel staring at her “reads like a scene from a horror movie”.
Deputy President Colman said that although Northern Health had failed to notify Parel of all the reasons for his dismissal, “the seriousness of the conduct outweighs any procedural shortcomings”.
The deputy president found the dismissal had not been harsh, unjust or unreasonable and dismissed Parel’s application.
Jimmy Parel v Northern Health [2026] FWC 2362 (25 June 2026)
