An Australian engineer who was sacked after his boss discovered "extremely insulting" WhatsApp messages he had written about him has won an unfair dismissal claim and been awarded $15,345. Tyler Monaghan had worked as a project engineer for construction firm Endacom since June 2022 and had already given eight weeks' notice to resign in October 2025 when the company terminated him immediately after viewing the messages. The Fair Work Commission found that although the comments breached his employment contract, the manner of his dismissal was harsh, unjust and unreasonable, highlighting broader questions about employers acting on private communications never meant for their eyes.

Commissioner Stephen Crawford found the messages, sent in a WhatsApp group of nine colleagues, were only discovered after management spotted them on another worker's computer and photographed them, with no legitimate reason to have been reading them in the first place. While Monaghan's conduct was deemed sufficiently connected to his employment to constitute a breach, Crawford noted he never intended managers to see the messages, was not given a chance to explain or express remorse, and that strong language was common among staff. The commissioner also rejected Endacom's claim that Monaghan had encouraged colleagues to quit, attributing a wave of resignations instead to unresolved concerns over working conditions.