CityCat worker fired after calling in sick for half of year’s workdays

A fired Brisbane CityCat worker has failed to get her job back after she was absent for almost half of the time between mid-2024 and mid-2025, according to Fair Work Commission ruling.

Jodie Daunis worked for Rivercity Ferries – the company that runs Brisbane’s CityCat and City Hopper cross river ferry services – since 2008 in several roles, and had been a deckhand since 2019.

The role required Daunis to move around the ferry, and after developing a blood clot in her lower leg in 2024, she was forced to take 114 days off from work, exhausting her sick and annual leave, and leading to her dismissal.

In an appeal launched with commission in December last year, Daunis, represented by the Maritime Union of Australia, said she had been unfairly dismissed.

Daunis was diagnosed with deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in 2012, at which time she was also found to be genetically predisposed to blood clotting in her legs and lungs.

She treated her DVT with medication since her diagnosis, but developed a different type of blood clot in 2024, known to cause pain and inflammation.

Daunis said she had also been scheduled for a surgery in November as a long-term solution for the pain in her legs, and had been forced to wait longer than expected after her insurance would not cover the claim, and she had to resort to a waitlist.

Rivercity Ferries said she had a “long-term history of absence from work due to a range of medical conditions”, and medical certificates presented over the 12 months before her termination had contradicted themselves on whether she was able to return to work.

Daunis said she was following shifting medical advice, telling the commission that something she was “fit medically, but physically she needed that time off”.

In one instance, in April 6, 2025, Daunis was hospitalised for two days before she returned to work, but said she was in too much pain to continue working.

Daunis’ doctor at the time, Dr Simone Carlotto of Pivotal Health, recommended she work for no longer than four hours at a time twice a week, and have each shift followed by at least one day off.

Carletto said Daunis’ DVT caused her “considerable pain” during the long periods of standing and sitting in her job, echoed by an independent medical exam organised by her employer that recommended Daunis be given only short shifts.

“As standing and walking around on board the vessel is intrinsic to her role, it may not be possible to reduce the time she spends on her feet,” the exam report said.

Rivercity Ferries said Daunis’ condition in the months leading up to her dismissal meant it could not reliably predict and avoid risks to her health at work.

Daunis told the commission her medical conditions should not discount her from her role, despite the known risks for DVT, pointing to her mix of surgical and medical treatments.

The commission ruled Daunis’ dismissal “was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable and therefore not unfair”.

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