Paul Marshallsea, a 62-year-old charity worker from Wales, won praise in January when he ran into the sea near Brisbane to grapple with the 1.8 metre shark, fearing it would attack paddling children.
A television crew caught the incident and images of Mr Marshallsea pulling the shark away from the beach were seen around the world.
But they caught the eye of his employers, a children’s charity – who had been told that Mr Marshallsea was on sick leave with stress.
Mr Marshallsea says he and his wife Wendy – who also worked for the charity and was also on sick leave when they went on holiday – returned to their home in the town of Merthyr Tydfil to find letters informing them that they had been fired.
The charity’s letter to Marshallsea said: “Whilst unfit to work you were well enough to travel to Australia and, according to recent news footage of yourself in Queensland, you allegedly grabbed a shark by the tail and narrowly missed being bitten by quickly jumping out of the way.”
The father-of-three said he was “disgusted” by how the charity has treated them, arguing that doctors had advised the couple to go on holiday to cope with stress.
“Where do I now get a job? There’s not much call for shark wrestlers in Merthyr Tydfil,” Marshallsea told the WalesOnline website.
“If I hadn’t gone in to save the kids on that beach that day my wife and I would still have a job,” he said.
“You think being in charge and running a children’s charity, they would have tapped me on the back.”
Marshallsea worked as a project manager for the charity while his wife was a senior youth worker. Both had been on sick leave with work-related stress since last April.