A senior political staffer to federal teal MP Monique Ryan has raised the stakes in her unfair dismissal claim after private talks broke down.
The Kooyong MP’s chief of staff Sally Rugg will seek to add claims of “serious contraventions” of the Fair Work Act after mediation failed to resolve her legal dispute with Dr. Ryan and the Commonwealth.
Maurice Blackburn’s principal lawyer Josh Bornstein said the penalty for knowingly and systematically breaching labour standards is up to $660,000.
“The serious contravention claim is made in circumstances in which Dr. Ryan publicly acknowledged that her staff were working 70-hour weeks and that it was not safe,” he said in a statement on Thursday….