Minor change to title costs worker her job

Advertisement BusinessWorkplaceUnfair dismissal Minor change to title costs worker her job Millie Muroi September 8, 2026 — 5:17am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Share A A A Employees have been delivered a warning from Australia's workplace umpire, which has ruled that an insurance broker's decision to change her title in a legal document justified her dismissal. On Friday, the Fair Work Commission ruled that broker Foula Dendroulakis, who had been employed at Victoria-based insurance company CCIB Services since 2021, was properly dismissed after she dropped the word 'senior' from her role as an account manager in formal correspondence. The senior account manager said she was remorseful and apologetic about her conduct. Dendroulakis was at odds with the company over seating arrangements, productivity and working from home when she wrote to the Fair Work Commission alleging she had been forced to take on a more senior job without more pay. But in her correspondence with the commission, she did not include the word 'senior' in her title, which CCIB Services viewed as an act of dishonesty and used to dismiss her. Advertisement The commission upheld that move, though in part because the insurance broker was a small business, it did not look at whether the employers' beliefs were ultimately correct or whether the dismissal was harsh on Dendroulakis. When Dendroulakis started at CCIB, her employment contract labelled her only as an 'account manager'. But the company said she was recruited to a 'senior account manager' position and paid accordingly, and that her business cards and email signature also reflected this. Dendroulakis also referred to herself as a 'senior account manager', including on her LinkedIn profile. Related Article Privacy Canva account at centre of legal fight over employee privacy In 2022, Dendroulakis sought a pay rise in which she referred to herself as a 'senior account manager' and was given a pay increase alongside a copy of her position description labelling her as such. In 2025, one of CCIB's directors, Kurt Alder, decided Dendroulakis was not being productive while working from home. When she was in the office, she was spending 'lots of time on personal calls in the boardroom during the work day', he concluded. Advertisement On one occasion, Alder said Dendroulakis had left the office early and did not return. When another co-director, Ryan Fisher, raised the issue with her, he said Dendroulakis 'kept changing her story', initially claiming she had left early to take a lunch break, then saying she was too busy and worked from her phone in her car. In a later email, Dendroulakis said she had left early to allow extra time to arrive at a client's premises due to poor weather conditions. Later that year, when the company altered seating arrangements in the office, Dendroulakis raised concern about the temperature of the location allocated to her and its impact on her ability to focus and work efficiently. She said that, as a senior team member, she would appreciate an opportunity to 'discuss an alternative seat, a private office arrangement, or a work from home agreement for two days a week'. The company said it would not be revisiting the desk issue and that Dendroulakis' 'productivity metrics did not support working two days from home'. Advertisement In what the commission termed a 'lengthy response', Dendroulakis then expressed concern about the job title in her employment contract. Related Article Unfair dismissal 'Classic pub punch' costs man his job after trading slurs with colleague The company acknowledged the word 'senior' had accidentally been omitted from the employment contract and that it had 'no concerns' about formally changing her job title. The same month, Dendroulakis was issued a first and final warning about her 'inability to perform effectively while working from home'. In December 2025, Dendroulakis made a legal claim with the commission. She alleged that the firm had changed her role without a lawful basis or more pay. Advertisement Dendroulakis claimed she had been underpaid and that she was required to perform duties of a 'senior account manager' when her title was 'account manager'. She also attached a copy of a letter she had previously sent to the company around the time of her pay rise, but removed the word 'senior' from her job title in the document. CCIB also got a copy of Dendroulakis' claim and noticed the omission. Dendroulakis said she had removed the word as a 'reflexive correction' in line with her employment agreement, but that it was not deliberate and that she had not intended to mislead the commission. Her lawyers said she was 'sincerely remorseful and apologetic' for the oversight, and that 'significant work-related stress and anxiety' had affected her attention to detail. Fisher said in evidence that Dendroulakis had become a 'liability' to the business and its workplace and had been 'blatantly dishonest on more than one occasion'. Advertisement Alder claimed Dendroulakis' conduct was 'effectively fraud' designed to bolster her claims against the company in an attempt to mislead the commission and falsely support her general protections claim. Dendroulakis' conduct was 'sufficiently serious,' the commission said – with the employer holding a genuine belief on reasonable grounds about the gravity of the conduct – for immediate dismissal to be justified. This masthead attempted to contact Dendroulakis for comment. CCIB declined to comment. The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning. From our partners