At first, it all sounds so endearingly Australian...

An employee tells his employer that he is sick and takes time off – so that he can attend a surfing competition.

His lie is discovered and he is duly fired, but an indulgent bureaucracy says that was too harsh and actually orders his employer to pay him compensation.

The bureaucrats seem to have treated the whole thing as a joke – but it is in fact a serious injustice.

It may also have serious consequences. Employers, and potential employers, in Australia will learn two lessons.

The first – the one the bureaucrats doubtless intended – is that employers need to be very cautious about firing employees, even when they are exposed as lazy liars.

The second – which the bureaucrats doubtless never considered – is that employers need to be even more cautious about hiring employees in the first place.

If employers cannot kick out liars who do kick outs when they say they are on the sick, then there is a surfing expression which describes accurately what will happen to the Australian job market: Wipe Out.