Sally Rugg has ramped up her authorized battle in opposition to teal unbiased MP Monique Ryan and the federal authorities after their try at mediation failed.
The political staffer and left wing activist will search so as to add a declare of “serious contraventions” of the Fair Work Act in opposition to the commonwealth when the excessive profile case returns to court docket on Friday.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Josh Bornstein stated they’d make the declare, which carries a most penalty of $660,000, as a result of he stated Dr Ryan had “publicly acknowledged” her employees had been working 70-hour weeks and that it wasn’t secure.
“In addition, the Commonwealth has been on notice of unlawful excessive hours being worked for parliamentary staffers for many years, including by reason of inquiries and reports to parliament,” Mr Bornstein stated on Thursday afternoon.
Ms Rugg has taken the commonwealth – her technical employer – and Dr Ryan to the Federal Court over an alleged breach of office legislation.
She claims the Kooyong MP tried to sack her as her chief of employees after simply six months when she refused to work extra “unreasonable” hours.
Court paperwork reveal Ms Rugg claims the commonwealth made “adverse action” in opposition to her and denied her the proper to refuse to “work additional hours that were unreasonable”.
According to the paperwork, the commonwealth tried to dismiss her efficient from January 31.
Ms Rugg alleges the commonwealth “contravened” the Fair Work Act by making an attempt to “injure the applicant in her employment by engaging in hostile conduct in the workplace”.
Lawyers representing the commonwealth, Dr Ryan and Ms Rugg appeared earlier than the Federal Court in Melbourne final month.
At the interlocutory listening to, Ms Rugg looked for the court docket to impose an injunction stopping her termination from taking impact.
The court docket heard the events had reached an settlement to increase her employment till 5pm on January 17 to permit mediation to happen.
The Federal Court will hear Ms Rugg’s software for an injunction to restrain the termination of her employment on Friday morning.
After that subject is decided, Ms Rugg will then pursue her claims for compensation and different orders in opposition to the commonwealth and Dr Ryan.
In an announcement, Dr Ryan stated she wouldn’t touch upon the authorized proceedings because the matter was earlier than the court docket.
But she stated she rejected and would defend herself in opposition to Ms Rugg’s claims in addition to the “additional matters” Mr Bornstein raised on Thursday.
Mr Bornstein stated the lawsuit can be a “test case” for what constitutes “reasonable” additional time or extra hours for parliamentary staffers and will have an effect on different white-collar staff within the labour market.
He stated if Ms Rugg succeeded it will “open the door” for additional litigation together with class actions, not just for commonwealth staff however for different staff who consider they’ve been exploited by a contractual obligation to carry out undefined “reasonable additional hours”.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
