Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. TOTOTO The fellow schoolteacher of convicted baby killer Keli Lane has won a legal victory against the North Shore Catholic school that fired him after 27 years of service. Lane’s long-term partner Patrick Cogan was fired
The fellow schoolteacher of convicted baby killer Keli Lane has won a legal victory against the North Shore Catholic school that fired him after 27 years of service.
Lane’s long-term partner Patrick Cogan was fired from St Pius X College Chatswood last year for failing to provide the school with medical information, using his work email to conduct personal business and failing to notify the school about speaking to the media regarding Lane.
Keli Lane was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty in 2010 of murdering her two-day-old baby Tegan in Sydney in 1996 after giving birth at Auburn Hospital.
Cogan’s school is run by Edmund Rice Australia, which sent him a letter last October informing him of his dismissal, alleging dishonest communication and failure to follow instructions regarding media involvement, including with 60 minutes.
He also told Cogan that he had not complied with an order not to use his work email account for personal correspondence related to Lane. The school also alleged that Cogan failed to follow an instruction to provide sufficient medical information about his fitness for work when requested.
Fair Work Commission vice-chairman Tony Slevin found earlier this year that reasons given for dismissal relating to media involvement and failure to provide medical information were not valid reasons for dismissal.
Slevin noted that as far as the use of school email was concerned, it was a valid reason for dismissal, but that Cogan’s explanation for its use was a mitigating factor, favoring the conclusion that the dismissal was “harsh, unfair or unreasonable.”
The university also did not notify Cogan of the reasons for the dismissal or give him an opportunity to respond, according to Slevin’s ruling.
The Fair Work Commission ordered the school to reinstate Cogan and give him back pay.
Edmund Rice Education subsequently attempted to appeal the decision, arguing that the ruling to reinstate Cogan contained significant factual errors.
Among them was that the original commissioner had “misinterpreted” letters sent from the school to Cogan about his behavior, and that his “devotion to his companion was a relevant factor” to be considered.
The full Fair Work Commission disagreed.
“We do not accept that Mr Cogan’s devotion to his partner and the explanation for his non-compliance with the email address were not relevant matters for the vice-president to take into account or that there is any reason to suggest that the vice-president did not consider matters which the College held were relevant to the seriousness of Mr Cogan’s conduct,” they said.
In its ruling released Tuesday, the court determined that “none of the alleged errors were fundamental” to concluding that he be reinstated.
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