An insurance broker was lawfully dismissed after leaving the word “senior” out of her job title in correspondence to Australia’s workplace tribunal, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Foula Dendroulakis had worked for Victoria-based insurance company CCIB Services since 2021. She argued that she had been required to carry out the duties of a senior account manager without the appropriate pay, but described herself only as an “account manager” in a claim lodged with the commission.
CCIB Services treated the omission as dishonest conduct and terminated her employment. The commission has now upheld the dismissal, finding that the company held a genuine and reasonable belief that her conduct was serious enough to justify immediate action.
Dendroulakis said the change had been a “reflexive correction” based on the wording of her employment contract and was not intended to mislead the tribunal. Her lawyers told the commission she was “sincerely remorseful and apologetic” and that work-related stress and anxiety had affected her attention to detail.
The company’s position was that she had been hired as a senior account manager and paid accordingly. Her business cards, email signature and LinkedIn profile all used the senior title, while a 2022 pay-rise request also referred to her in those terms.
CCIB Services acknowledged that the word “senior” had been accidentally omitted from her original employment contract and had previously indicated it had no objection to formally correcting the document.
The dispute unfolded amid wider tensions over Dendroulakis’ work arrangements. One director, Kurt Alder, raised concerns about her productivity while working from home, while the company also criticised her use of personal calls during office hours.
Dendroulakis later objected to a change in office seating, saying the location allocated to her was too cold and affected her ability to concentrate. She requested either an alternative desk, a private office or an agreement allowing her to work from home two days a week.
CCIB Services rejected the request, saying her productivity figures did not support additional home working. Dendroulakis was subsequently issued with a first and final warning over what the company described as an inability to work effectively from home.
In December 2025, she brought a claim before the Fair Work Commission alleging that CCIB Services had changed her role without a lawful basis or an increase in pay. The company obtained a copy of the claim and noticed that the word “senior” had been removed from an attached letter.
Co-director Ryan Fisher told the commission that Dendroulakis had become a liability and had been dishonest on more than one occasion. Alder alleged that the omission was effectively an attempt to mislead the tribunal and strengthen her workplace claim.
Because CCIB Services was a small business, the commission did not separately determine whether the company’s underlying beliefs were ultimately correct or whether the dismissal was harsh in the circumstances. It concluded instead that the employer had reasonable grounds for considering the conduct sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal.
