MinterEllison is facing a lawsuit in the Federal Court from a former employee who alleges that she was bullied, discriminated against, overworked, and subject to “humiliation” during her tenure.
Alfreda Garnsey, formerly a client monies administrator at BigLaw firm MinterEllison, has filed a lawsuit against her previous employer based on allegations of disability discrimination, adverse action, and breach of duty of care – seeking close to $765,000 in remedies.
Beginning her tenure with the firm in 2019, Garnsey worked in the infrastructure, construction and property team (ICP team), where she was responsible for processing client monies receipted into and paid out of trust and controlled accounts.
Midway through 2019, Garnsey alleged numerous contentious events had occurred within and around the ICP team, including the engagement of an external registered clinical psychologist to investigate “significant” health and safety risks.
According to Garnsey, the external psychologist found examples of bullying and inappropriate behaviours, a culture that permeated psychological harm, and a number of external complaints about the ICP team.
Around this time, Garnsey also alleged that she was experiencing an excessive workload, alerting her manager that she would work additional hours to complete that workload, and be provided time off in lieu.
In November of 2019, Garnsey alleged that an employee engaged to support the ICP team suffered a mental health event in the workplace during work hours.
Garnsey claimed that these events culminated in a meeting conducted by MinterEllison chief executive Virginia Briggs with the ICP team, where she relayed words to the effect of “if you people don’t change your behaviour, heads will roll”.
MinterEllison denied these claims, instead asserting that the external psychologist carried out employee workshops – not an investigation.
The firm also denied the assertion of the “heads will roll” statement, claiming that Briggs’ overarching message was based on the behaviour of team members needing to improve and overall contribution to positive team culture.
Garnsey alleged that the external psychologist did, in fact, carry out coaching workshops after the findings made during the investigation – but also claimed that these ceased at the end of 2019, and MinterEllison failed to follow up with any further steps to address the health and safety risks within the ICP team.
Excessive workload
During the back end of 2019, Garnsey worked throughout both Christmas and New Year’s to complete the “excessive workload” allocated to her, to which she requested some form of time in lieu, but was allegedly denied.
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