A NSW train driver found to have twice made Nazi salutes at passing locomotives has failed to get his job back despite appealing his dismissal to the Fair Work Commission and claiming other rail workers made the same hand gesture regularly.
Last week, the commission found a decision by Australia’s largest private rail freight operator, Pacific National Services, to fire Eric Jordan was valid because he had twice performed the Nazi salute towards passing trains while on duty at Mittagong Station in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Pacific National said such conduct breached its workplace policies and brought the company into disrepute.
Jordan, who had been employed as a train driver at the company since 2014, and worked in the rail industry since 2007, claimed he performed an “all clear” hand signal used in the rail industry or a gesture of camaraderie between train crew. He said this signal was an “arm raised into the air with a flat palm”.
However, Fair Work Commission deputy president Bryce Cross said he would expect any rail worker who had performed the same gesture as Jordan – fully extending their right or left arm at a 45-degree angle from their body – would be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
In response to the allegations put to him in a letter in March 2025, Jordan wrote back the following month that the Nazi salute was “incredibly offensive” and that it would never occur to him to perform the gesture.
“I am unsure as to why you would suggest that an alleged raise of my hand – however the hand is raised or held thereafter – is anything other than a friendly and helpful gesture to my fellow drivers,” he wrote. “While I cannot recall the exact reason I may have raised my hand on this date, I would conclude that if any gesture was made, it was to demonstrate to the drivers … that the track was clear, while also showing camaraderie amongst fellow train drivers which is a usual occurrence.”
Jordan also wrote that he considered himself to be “a person who is accepting of all cultures” and that it was worth noting that his mentor, who introduced him to his career in the rail industry, followed the Jewish faith. “I hold the utmost respect to him,” he wrote.
In a termination letter addressed to Jordan in May 2025, Pacific National said there was no operational basis for his assertion that he was performing an “all-clear” hand signal. “Such action was not performed in a manner consistent with an all-clear signal nor in an operational setting where the all-clear signal would be required or expected,” the letter read.
In his judgment, Cross noted there was CCTV footage obtained from Sydney Trains which showed Jordan fully extending his left arm at a 45-degree angle from his body and lowering it as a train came into view, then doing the same with his right arm as another train came into view 20 minutes later.
Jordan accepted that particular frames of the CCTV footage, in isolation, could be considered by Pacific National to be a Nazi salute, but maintained the gesture “in its totality” did not amount to one.
While there were also witnesses who supported the view that Jordan performed the Nazi salute, Cross concluded the CCTV footage alone was “clear and compelling”.
Cross also noted Jordan’s explanations about how he could be giving the “all clear” signal during these incidents were “fanciful,” “inconsistent” and “at times disingenuous”.
When giving evidence, for example, Jordan claimed all rail workers needed to give “all clear” gestures to passing trains at all times. Asked whether that meant rail workers in NSW were performing the same gesture he made, thousands of times a day, Jordan said “absolutely”.
“If I went to Central Station today, or yesterday, I’d be able to see this? You’re saying I would be able to see the gesture you performed thousands of times?” Jordan was asked, to which he responded: “On a through platform, yes.”
While Sydney Trains crew compliance officer David Kelly, in a witness statement filed by Jordan, said the gestures were “within the definition of an ‘all clear’ signal”, in cross-examination, he said he would never instruct a student to perform the signal in the manner Jordan did.
Cross said that although he didn’t consider Jordan to be a person who harbours Nazi sympathies or advocates such ideology, he made “two extremely inappropriate gestures”, especially noting he smiled before the first gesture, as jokes.
However, Cross concluded Pacific National had a valid reason for dismissing Jordan and that it was neither harsh, unjust, nor unreasonable.
The Rail, Train and Bus Union (RTBU), which represents workers across Australia’s rail and public transport industries, declined to comment.
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Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via X or email.
