The faeces were not there on Friday afternoon. Motion-sensitive CCTV captured only one person walking between the sheds during the time period - Marsters.
The camera captured him turning off his phone torch light, walking between the sheds and reemerging some time later on Saturday, March 26.
But Marsters had an innocent explanation for his actions.
On Saturday March 26 the guard was patrolling the primary school, tasked with doing a walk around, checking doors were locked and nothing suspicious was happening.
But he said sometimes he would check matters that were not necessarily part of his job description. On the day in question, the finding said, he had a “feeling in his bones” that if someone were to steal from the school, they would target the tools and equipment sheds.
The short passageway ended in a fence about 1.8m high, with a trough or basin at the end. Checking the area would “only have taken seconds”, ERA member Geoff O’Sullivan wrote in the finding.
Marsters said he did not know why it took him extra time. But he claimed his phone may have “dinged” and he may have checked it for a message, or he may have rested as he is asthmatic.
At an investigation meeting with the company, Marsters confirmed he was the man captured on CCTV but denied defecating and said no faeces were in the area when he checked.
“He also noted that he would have had access to toilets at multiple sites, including at the school,” the ERA said. Allied had made it clear that “under no circumstances was he to use the school toilets” but Marsters claimed he would have disobeyed that instruction if he had an “urgent need”.
“He raised a number of questions including whether or not the faeces could be identified as human in origin, whether or not they were adult or children’s faeces, whether or not someone could have accessed the space out of sight of the camera and whether or not a neighbour may have thrown faeces over a fence,” the decision says.
He also said he had bad knees and it would not be physically possible to defecate in the timeframe.
But Allied Security rejected Marsters’ explanation for the faeces and said an educated adult could make the assessment that they were human.
“Having investigated the physical site, Allied Security considered it was unlikely that anyone else could be to blame because they would need to climb a 1.8 metre high fence, defecate in the basin and then climb back if they were not to be seen,” the ERA’s decision said.
Allied Security decided on the balance of probabilities that Marsters was to blame for the faeces.
Failure to turn up to shifts
Marsters started the job on October 21, 2021, and was initially based at Countdown sites but was moved to the mobile patrol team because he could not wear a mask.
Allied Security said Marsters’ transfer to the mobile team was “problematic” because of his refusal to work initial weeks, failing to answer or return calls and often refusing shifts because he was sick.
During the 31 weeks he was employed, he only managed to work a full week seven times.
Following the faeces complaint, Marsters was invited to an investigation meeting but was not available. The following week he missed three shifts, on April 16, 17 and 18, without informing the company.
These additional issues were discussed with Marsters at his investigation meeting on April 28 and May 18.
Marsters said he suffered from allergies and that on April 16, his left eye had swollen up and he could not see out of it - leaving him unable to use his phone.
But Allied rejected Marsters’ explanation, deciding his actions were serious misconduct and would justify dismissal. In a letter on May 20 the company informed Marsters by letter that he was fired.
The ERA’s O’Sullivan concurred, writing that “defecating in a basin on a school property whilst undertaking duties as a security guard could easily be viewed by an employer as serious misconduct”.
Allied Security had followed an appropriate process and was entitled to come to the conclusions it did, he said.
Marsters’ request for remedy for unjustified dismissal was denied.
