The independent MP Monique Ryan and her chief of staff Sally Rugg have reached an agreement that prevents the political staffer from being imminently sacked. They will also enter mediation in an attempt to resolve a broader dispute about working conditions in the MP’s office, a court has heard.
In an application to the federal court, Rugg accused the commonwealth of “hostile conduct” and claimed Ryan caused her to be terminated for refusing to work “unreasonable” additional hours.
Rugg also applied to the court for an injunction to keep her job with the member for Kooyong, alleging a breach of the Fair Work Act’s general protections provisions. She had been due to be terminated from the position on Tuesday.
At a court hearing in Melbourne on Friday, Rugg’s lawyer, Angel Aleksov, said his client had reached an agreement with Ryan in relation to the injunction, and the pair would enter mediation along with the commonwealth in a bid to resolve the entire case.
Rugg will remain employed by Ryan and be paid “miscellaneous leave” until 17 February, when the matter will return to court.
The pair are expected to enter mediation before this hearing, but a date for this is yet to be fixed, after Ryan’s lawyer, Matthew Minucci, said his client had been concerned about a suggestion this could occur on the week starting 13 February, given parliament will be sitting.
Aleksov also told justice Debra Mortimer that no public access should be provided to further documents in the case until after the mediation, as the publication of this information may hamper the prospects of a settlement being reached.
Minucci agreed, while Nick Harrington, acting for the commonwealth, said his client’s position was neutral.
Mortimer said that while she was a “little reluctant” to keep material suppressed, particularly the originating affidavit filed by Rugg, she would do so.
She said this was because she had been assured by counsel for Rugg and Ryan that such an approach was necessary so that “free and informed discussions” could take place to try to resolve the case.
In a statement released after the hearing on Friday, Rugg’s lawyer, Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein, said:
“Ms Rugg and I are pleased with the outcome today. The issues at the core of Ms Rugg’s substantive complaints are deeply important to her.
“She notes that the 2021 Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into Commonwealth workplaces and the subsequent Set The Standard Report demonstrated that these issues are important to many staff across Commonwealth offices of the Federal Parliament.”
Ryan said the case had been adjourned to allow the parties to try to reach a “sensible” resolution.
“I agreed to this course because I hope the issue can be resolved without further delay, which will enable me to continue the important work that my constituents expect me to have as my focus, particularly with Parliament about to resume,” she said in a statement.
In Rugg’s federal court application, released on Tuesday, she 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 court hearing on Monday, which was vacated.
Rugg is a Melbourne-based activist and feminist who played a leading role in the yes campaign during the marriage equality vote in her former position at GetUp. She has also worked as the executive director of Change.org and headed an organisation lobbying for a royal commission into media businesses owned by Rupert Murdoch.
