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Employers' obligations to ensure psychosocial safety at work can present a "significant challenge", the Fair Work Commission has observed in finding a stressed and frustrated employee was unfairly dismissed for misconduct.

In July last year, Ventia Australia sacked the Fremantle Justice Complex custody officer for breaching its code of conduct during an incident with a person in custody (PIC) two months earlier. Specifically, it alleged he head-butted the glass section of the PIC's cell door and then later told a manager it was a shame he'd hit the door and not the PIC's head.

But the employee claimed his conduct wasn't sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal.

He told the Commission that when the PIC was dropped off at the complex, he started threatening custody officers, punching walls, kicking doors, and putting his shirt in the toilet to flood the cell...