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An employer failed to learn from its mistakes and unfairly sacked a long-serving worker for returning a positive D&A test, the Fair Work Commission has found in ordering reinstatement.

Sydney Trains dismissed the work group leader in September last year for breaching its drug and alcohol policy.

In unfair dismissal proceedings, the Commission heard that on 31 May 2022, four days before he was due to return from approved leave, the employee went out with friends and had some cocaine.

On his first day back at work, he underwent a random drug and alcohol test and returned a positive reading for cocaine metabolites; a further test showed he had benzoylecgonine in his system at a concentration of 264 ug/L, which exceeded the 150 ug/L "testing cut-off" under Australian Standards...