Super Retail Group, the owners of Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF and Macpac, has won a court fight to keep details of an alleged settlement offer made to two of its senior female executives suppressed from the public.
Over the last few months, Super Retail has been embroiled in a court case against Super Retail chief legal officer Rebecca Farrell, and former co-company secretary Amelia Berczelly, who claimed workplace bullying and improper workplace behaviour by CEO Anthony Heraghty, among other allegations, most of which are believed to stem from a nondisclosure of an alleged sexual relationship between Heraghty and the former head of HR, Jane Kelly.
Farrell claims a settlement with Super Retail was reached on May 6 and she has taken the company and its executives, including chairwoman Sally Pitkin, to court to enforce that settlement.
Attempts by Farrell to get the Federal Court to overturn a current suppression order on the details of that deal have now failed.
“I am not satisfied that it has been established that the applicant (Ms Farrell) will suffer substantial injustice if leave to appeal is not granted,” Justice Yaseen Shariff wrote in his judgment, reported The Australian.
“Thus, even assuming (in Ms Farrell’s favour) that the suppression orders were wrong, the absence of substantial injustice is a sufficient reason to refuse the grant of leave.”
Last week, John Hyde Page, who is representing Farrell, said in his submission Super Retail and its management were fighting to hide the company’s “dirty laundry” from public view.
“The only thing one is left with is a large corporation and a management team that wants the court to hide its dirty laundry. Suppression orders do not get made in those sorts of circumstances,” he reportedly told the court.
Justice Shariff disagreed with that view. “Nor am I persuaded that any weight is to be given to Ms Farrell’s assertions that the Super Retail parties have made public and defamatory statements about her, including as to the content and nature of the settlement discussions that are the subject of the suppression orders.”
While this is a setback for the two former employees, their main case against Super Retail which involves more serious allegations against the conduct of the company’s senior executives, that eventually led to the settlement offer, will begin early next year.
Super Retail’s share price lost some ground last month after it confirmed that its net profit in the first half was 9% lower to $130 million, below analyst estimates. However, group sales rose 4% to $2.1 billion over that period and same-store sales increased 1.8%.
Apart from the federal court case, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is also reported to be investigating the circumstances which led the two executives and whistleblowers to sue their former employer.
