A longtime Coles employee accused of using meth and stealing sandwiches has failed to get her job back, after claiming she was pressured to resign. 

Mother-of-two Tara Ireland had worked for Coles since 2005 and was most recently a night fill manager at the supermarket giant's Traralgon store in regional Victoria.

In her Fair Work Commission application, Ms Ireland said she was left in 'shock and distress' after being pressured to resign from a job that had 'meant the world' to her.

But the Commission ruled on Tuesday that Ms Ireland had not been dismissed and had voluntarily resigned.

The case centred on a series of allegations arising from an incident at the store in November 2025.

Store manager Conrad Taylor told the Fair Work Commission CCTV showed Ms Ireland entering a staff disabled toilet at 6.50pm on November 5.

The commission heard a team member entered the toilets at 9.06pm and allegedly discovered a crack pipe and two bags of methamphetamine, before handing them to Ms Ireland and accompanying her to place them in the manager's office.

In documents filed to Fair Work, Mr Taylor claimed CCTV later showed Ms Ireland entering the manager's office at 9.50pm and leaving with an item in her hand before returning to the staff disabled toilet on four occasions throughout the night. 

The commission heard a separate Coles fraud investigation alleged Ms Ireland took four pre-packaged sandwiches from a stockroom to a tea room, failed to pay for them and left the wrappers in a bin.

In documents filed to Fair Work, a disciplinary meeting was held on December 3, 2025 and Mr Taylor claimed Ms Ireland 'got agitated and stormed out of the room in a huff' after she was asked why she had not reported the alleged crack pipe and meth.

The commission heard Ms Ireland claimed the accusations were 'confronting, distressing and damaging' to her integrity and professional reputation.

She claimed she was not shown direct evidence of drug use, was not offered a drug test and believed Coles had already formed conclusions about her conduct.

Feeling 'overwhelmed and distressed', Ms Ireland told those present, 'I can't do this', before leaving the meeting, according to documents filed to Fair Work. 

The commission heard a written resignation was submitted on her behalf after Ms Ireland spent two hours with her union Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. 

In Fair Work documents, Ms Ireland argued she had been emotionally overwhelmed and not thinking clearly and was not in a proper state of mind to make a calm, considered or voluntary decision.

An employee's resignation carries no legal weight if it's made in the heat of the moment or amid such emotional turmoil that they cannot reasonably be taken to have intended to quit.

Fair Work Commissioner Mark Perica rejected that argument.

'I do not accept Ms Ireland was in such a state of emotional stress and mental confusion that she could not reasonably be understood to convey a real intention to resign,' he said.

While acknowledging the allegations would have been stressful, the commissioner found there was no evidence Ms Ireland was incapable of making a rational decision.

'Even if she was in a state of emotional distress because of the allegations described to her during the disciplinary meeting, any heat deriving from the conduct of Coles was room temperature by the time she spent two hours with her union representative which produced the written resignation,' Perica said.

'I therefore find the resignation was not a heat of the moment resignation.'

The commissioner found while the allegations may have suggested Ms Ireland's job was in jeopardy, nothing Coles did during the meeting coerced or forced her to resign.