High-profile teal independent Monique Ryan is facing court action by her chief-of-staff, who claims the MP tried to sack her after just six months when she refused to work additional “unreasonable” hours.
Dr Ryan recruited activist Sally Rugg, the former Change.org executive director and GetUp campaign director, after winning the affluent inner-eastern Melbourne seat of Kooyong from former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
But after just six months in the role, Ms Rugg has taken the commonwealth and the member for Kooyong to the Federal Court.
The chief of staff last week filed an originating application over an alleged breach of general protections under the Fair Work Act. MP staff are employed by the Commonwealth, not individual politicians or parties.
Ms Rugg is attempting to stop the Commonwealth from firing her after she pushed back about the hours she was working and is asking the court to find the Commonwealth breached the Fair Work Act.
Court documents lodged in the Federal Court reveal Ms Rugg claims the Commonwealth made “adverse action” against her and denied her the right to refuse to “work additional hours that were unreasonable”.
According to the documents, the Commonwealth attempted to dismiss her effective from January 31.
“The applicant has exercised a workplace right by refusing to work additional hours that were not reasonable, being clause 4 of her contract of employment … and which is a law governing the relationship between employer and employee,” the originating application said.
Ms Rugg alleges the Commonwealth “contravened” the Fair Work Act by attempting to “injure the applicant in her employment by engaging in hostile conduct in the workplace”.
The activist claims she exercised a workplace right by making “complaints and inquiries in relation to her employment”.
She is also asking the court to order the Commonwealth pay her compensation and pecuniary penalties over the alleged breach of workplace law.
In the documents, Ms Rugg alleges Dr Ryan was the “principal actor” in her claims and is requesting an injunction to stop her from being terminated.
Ms Rugg played a key role in the marriage equality campaign as the campaign director for GetUp between 2013 to 2018.
She also unsuccessfully campaigned for a royal commission into News Corp, alongside former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
In July, Dr Ryan said she was “delighted” to reveal Ms Rugg had joined her team.
“Sally is an outstanding all-rounder with excellent leadership experience, a proven track record of effective policy advocacy, and high level strategic communications skills,” she said.
Dr Ryan was one of the most high profile pro-climate candidates at the 2022 election.
