For Davide Tamburella, a late filing meant his challenge to his dismissal ended before the Fair Work Commission examined whether the allegations against him were justified.
Commissioner Jennifer Hunt dismissed his application on Tuesday after ruling that it had been lodged outside the prescribed time limit and did not meet the test for exceptional circumstances.
Tamburella was head chef at La Costa, an Italian restaurant in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. In April, he fractured bones in his right hand after striking a metal handrail at work.
He had refused twice in the previous four years to put pineapple on pizzas. When guests at a function for a customer spending in excess of A$15,000 requested ham and pineapple pizzas, he refused for a third time.
The commission recorded that Tamburella regarded pineapple on pizza as an insult to his culture as an Italian. He had told management that a direction “need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture”, and had earlier asked his boss to “check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza”.
A fortnight before his dismissal, La Costa’s managing director, Elliot Ingram, met Tamburella over performance concerns that included the pizza refusal. Management also raised his use of foul language, his communication style and an “escalation of frustration in the workplace”.
Tamburella was dismissed on 20 May. He later applied to the Fair Work Commission, alleging that his dismissal had been partly motivated by the workplace injury he suffered in April.
The restaurant also ended its sponsorship of his employer-sponsored subclass 186 visa process after the dismissal. Tamburella had spent more than three years in that process, which was intended to allow skilled workers to become permanent residents.
Hunt’s decision dealt with the timing of the application rather than the substance of the case. The commission did not determine whether the reasons advanced for Tamburella’s dismissal were justified.
Ingram told the Daily Mail there was “more to this story than a pizza topping”. He said he had 17 years in hospitality and more than a decade of running restaurants.
La Costa closed in July when its lease expired. Tamburella now works at another Brisbane restaurant where pineapple does not appear on the menu.
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