Sally Rugg has accused the commonwealth of “hostile conduct” and claimed independent MP Monique Ryan caused her to be sacked for refusing to work “unreasonable” additional hours, court documents reveal.
Rugg’s federal court application, released on Tuesday, reveals that Ryan’s chief of staff is seeking an injunction to keep her job with the member for Kooyong, alleging a breach of the Fair Work Act’s general protections provisions.
Rugg claims that she exercised a workplace right to refuse “unreasonable” additional hours, and that Ryan then “directly procured [or] induced” her employer, the commonwealth, to take “adverse action” by seeking to dismiss her for it.
Rugg argues the commonwealth also took adverse action “to injure the applicant in her employment by engaging in hostile conduct in the workplace”.
Although the commonwealth, which employs staffers through the Department of Finance, is listed as the first respondent in the case, Rugg is seeking a declaration that Ryan was “involved” in the contraventions.
That is because Ryan “directly procured, induced, or [was] knowingly concerned in or party to the contravention, in that the second respondent was the principal actor on behalf of the first respondent in the relevant transactions”, the document said.
In addition to an injunction to keep her job, Rugg is also seeking compensation and unspecified “pecuniary penalties” from both the commonwealth and Ryan.
The document reveals Rugg’s employment was to be terminated on Tuesday, one day after the case was listed for its first hearing on Monday, which was vacated.
The case is due for its first interlocutory hearing before Justice Debra Mortimer on Friday, to consider Rugg’s request for an interim injunction to keep her job pending final determination of the case.
Given the allegation of unreasonable work demands, the case may renew scrutiny on the Albanese government’s decision in June to cut crossbench MPs’ staffing allocation from eight to five people.
The crossbench protested against the cut, citing the Jenkins report that found “long and irregular hours of work” as a risk factor of working as a political staffer in parliament house.
Rugg is a Melbourne-based LGBTQ+ activist and feminist who played a leading role in the yes campaign during the marriage equality vote in her former position at GetUp, before working as the executive director of Change.org.
Ryan was elected in 2022, ousting then deputy Liberal leader and treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, from his blue-ribbon inner-Melbourne seat.
In July, Rugg told the Sydney Morning Herald that she was drawn to Ryan after watching her debate Frydenberg during the election campaign.
“What drew me to Monique was obviously the policy priorities – climate change, gender equity, integrity and transparency in politics – but also her approach as a grassroots, community-connected independent,” Rugg reportedly said.
On Monday, Rugg, Ryan, and their lawyers Maurice Blackburn and Sparke Helmore declined to comment on the case.
