Church minister opposed to marriage equality loses dismissal claim
A Uniting Church minister has lost his unfair dismissal claim after being sacked for making public statements opposing marriage equality.
The minister’s own congregation reported him to church hierarchy after he made the offensive comments on social and mainstream media.
Church minister loses dismissal claim
The Mooloolaba Uniting Church appointed Hedley Fihaki as a minister in 2013.
His anti-marriage equality comments made between January 2019 and August 2021 went against a previous Uniting Church resolution.
That 2018 resolution stated that the marriage of same-gender couples is allowable under certain circumstances.
The Fair Work Commission found Hedley Fihaki did not meet the definition of an “employee”.
Not an employee
Fair Work Commissioner Paula Spencer dismissed Fihaki’s unfair dismissal claim, finding that he did not meet the definition of an “employee”.
“The ministry role within the Church creates a covenantal or spiritual relationship between the Church and the Minister. It is not an employment relationship,” Spencer ruled.
However, she said that even if Fihaki had managed to prove he was an employee, the reasons for his sacking remained valid.
By making a number of statements “to and on both mainstream and social media”, as well as at a church meeting in Sunnybank, Fihaki had “publicly departed from and significantly recanted the teachings” of the church, Ms Spencer said.
His comments resulted in multiple complaints and 23 breaches of the church’s code of ethics and ministry practice.
“If it is that Reverend Fihaki is found to be an employee, then I find that there was a valid reason for the dismissal based on the repudiation of the employment relationship,” Ms Spencer said.
Smells like an employment contract
Meanwhile, Fihaki argued he was an employee because the church paid him $28.32 per hour for work, in addition to superannuation.
He said he also filed tax returns like “other employees” and received Jobkeeper payments.
“If it looks like an employment contract and it smells like an employment contract, then it probably is an employment contract,” Fihaki said.
However, Ms Spencer found the “letter of call for congregational placement” in 2013 is not “an employment contract”.
She also found that the church paid Fihaki a stipend as a living allowance, not a wage.
“I find that Reverend Fihaki is not an employee or an independent contractor and is in a separate category of spiritual or covenantal relationship.”
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Previous claim
This isn’t the first time Fihaki has filed an unfair dismissal claim against the Uniting Church.
In 2011, the church sacked him from his position as minister at the Cairns Immanuel Uniting Church following “a dispute”.
However, the Commission dismissed the claim, finding Fihaki made it 12 days after the strict 21-day deadline.
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