Teal staffer saga continues
A political staffer is seeking compensation after the MP she worked for allegedly made her work more than 70 hours a week.
Court documents show ‘teal’ MP Monique Ryan told her chief of staff Sally Rugg she needed to work “as hard as I want” because “this is bigger than Kooyong” and she wants to be “prime minister one day”.
Ms Rugg has been seeking financial compensation from Dr Ryan and the Commonwealth after claiming that she was forced to work over 70 hours “week in and week out and most weekends”. Ms Rugg was paid a base salary of $136,607 plus a parliamentary staff allowance of $29,862.
After weeks of mediation talks failed, political adviser Sally Rugg this week lost her attempt to continue working for MP Monique Ryan.
Ms Rugg submitted an application for an injunction to restrain her sacking from Dr Ryan’s staff. Ms Rugg then went on to pursue compensation against the Commonwealth and Ryan, her legal representatives said.
The Federal Court deemed the idea of them working together again as not feasible, citing the extraordinary “trench warfare” between the two as a major obstacle.
Justice Debra Mortimer ruled on Tuesday that the notion was far-fetched, stating that there was no realistic prospect of them working together again.
“Even on the most favourable view of Ms Rugg’s submissions about how responsibly they might each try to behave, I do not consider the situation is likely to be tolerable, let alone productive and workable, for either of them,” Justice Mortimer said.
“The applicant’s submissions to the contrary had a significant degree of unreality about them.”
The judge also considered Ms Rugg's personal ambitions to become an MP, which weighed against her continuing to perform her duties for Dr Ryan.
“Ms Rugg ... has given a lot of evidence about her own ambitions, her own desires to be in Canberra ... It persuades me there is no prospect whatsoever of a co-operative working relationship being restored because - even for the purposes of her own application - Ms Rugg cannot bring herself to express her dedication to assisting Dr Ryan,” she said.
The bigger battle over financial compensation continues, with a Federal Court trial set for later this year.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks and will determine how many work hours are reasonable, potentially paving the way for a wave of claims by other white-collar workers.