A Jetstar maintenance worker who claimed he was ‘harshly’ sacked over alleged taunts aimed at an apprentice has lost an appeal for reinstatement.

Jarrod Mcrae was sacked on July 29, 2025 over a series of incidents that took place at Melbourne Airport, where he allegedly called a younger colleague a ‘pu***’ and asked ‘were you hit much as a kid?’.

The engineer, also known as Jack, lodged an unfair dismissal application with the Fair Work Commission, claiming that the alleged remarks were taken out of context.

In its evidence to the FWC, Jetstar alleged Mcrae said to the apprentice: ‘You are all pu**ies now, it’s ridiculous, back when I was an apprentice, we used to cop all sorts of abuse.’

The airline alleged that in a separate incident, Mcrae threatened the apprentice to a fight.

‘Oi, take it to the carpark, be a man,’ he allegedly told him.

The apprentice told the hearing: ‘Jarrod made me feel like coming to work was unsafe for me and that I should not voice my concerns in fear of being negatively perceived by him and others.’

‘I fear/feared [sic] that he may take physical action against me for speaking up against him.’

Mcrae denied making the remarks or claimed they had been taken out of context and not directed solely at the apprentice.

FWC Deputy President Richard Clancy did not rule definitively that the comments were made when delivering his decision last week. 

‘As for the comments “were you hit much as a kid” and “oi, take it to the carpark, be a man”, Mr Mcrae’s response was, again, a combination of a denial and an assertion that he made comments that have been taken out of context,’ Mr Clancy said.

‘If the applicant made the alleged comments, I consider them bizarre, inane and not at all amusing.’

While the alleged taunts did not warrant dismissal by the airline, Mcrae’s actions during a third incident did, Mr Clancy ruled.

The apprentice and another colleague were stranded on an elevated work platform five or six metres above the ground after Mcrae pressed an emergency stop button.

In his defence, Mcrae claimed that he had pushed the button for operational reasons and that his failure to reactivate the elevated work platform was an unintentional, genuine error.

Mr Clancy ruled that Mcrae then laughed and walked away, despite knowing his actions could have caused serious harm to his colleagues who were stranded without any independent means of lowering the platform. 

‘Mr Mcrae acted in breach of the Cardinal Rules by recklessly engaging in ‘horseplay, skylarking or practical jokes’ in pressing the emergency stop button on the elevated work platform on the day in question,’ he wrote.

At the time of his sacking, Mcrae had been in the industry for 23 years, the last two employed by Jetstar.

The FWC upheld Jetstar’s decision. 

‘Having made findings in relation to each matter and given due weight to each, I am satisfied the dismissal was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable,’ Mr Clancy ruled.