I was once put in a situation where an employer tried to shaft me over my contract. The newly appointed department boss told me he was going to change my three year contract to one of a year, after his predecessor insisted that it could only be for a minimum of three years and I’d moved family around and made financial commitments to suit the three years in post.
I took professional legal advice and was told that the union would be very keen to take them to court! Unknown to me, this had previously happened to other employees and the union had sued on their behalf. It got as far as the High Court and the employer lost. It cost them a lot of money.
I elected to negotiate with the employer, on a personal level. The new boss realised he was over a barrel and the three year contract was soon reinstated. However, I was told in person by him that one professional mistake and I would be gone with no notice. At the time the department was in management chaos (much of it down to him) and it was difficult to comply with their ever changing demands. I felt totally under pressure because I knew I was being watched and in the end I resigned. The letter of resignation was very carefully worded, but totally honest and contained a couple of “scorchers”.
I was subsequently politely asked to withdraw my resignation and was offered resolution of contract instead, which was financially beneficial to me and less damaging to the bossman’s career. Boy, was I was glad to get out of there!
In the case of the pilot at the core of this thread, I can’t for the life of me think that she would actually opt to go back and work for Westpac in those circumstances.