The former chief legal officer and company secretary of Super Retail Group, Rebecca Farrell, has filed court proceedings against the fashion and lifestyle business as well as the CEO Anthony Heraghty and its chair Sally Pitkin.
Farrell will be represented by Harmers Workplace Lawyers in the lawsuit, with the firm confirming that she is a whistleblower who exposed “serious corporate governance issues within the company.”
As set out in the latest proceedings, Farrell claims that a settlement agreement with Super Retail was reached on May 6, 2024, following termination of her employment on May 3. She is seeking to enforce that settlement agreement.
If the court finds that there is not a settlement agreement, Farrell will pursue the full extent of her claims, including that Super Retail has bullied and harassed her because she raised corporate governance breaches, including a conflict of interest on the part of the CEO by his alleged failure to disclose the nature of his relationship with the then chief human resources officer, Jane Kelly.
Other allegations include the breaching of the Corporations Act, including the whistleblower provisions, the breaching of Super Retail’s own whistleblower policy, and the breaching of the company’s “contractual obligation to provide a safe workplace.”
Super Retail Group has since rebuked the claims, saying it will defend these court proceedings.
The latest news comes two months after Super Retail Group revealed through an ASX update that it was expecting two employees to launch court proceedings against the company. According to the ASX release in late April, both employees were expected to jointly claim loss and damage in the range of $30 million to $50 million.
Days later, Harmers launched a counterattack against Super Retail Group over its “deliberate misrepresentation” in the surprise update.
In that statement, Harmers had confirmed that it is now acting for four clients who are whistleblowers against Super Retail Group.
“Since Friday’s announcement [on April 29], we have been approached by a further number of current and ex-employees with similar concerns,” the statement read. “We are confident that other current and former SRG staff will support our clients’ claims.
"A third party, not associated with SRG, has now also come forward to us with key evidence about the previously undisclosed personal relationship between SRG’s CEO, Anthony Heraghty and his former direct report, and SRG’s former CHRO, Jane Kelly.
“Our two clients, who we assume Friday’s ASX announcement was aimed at, have each made Protected Disclosures within the meaning of the Corporations Act, within recent months, to the non-conflicted members of the SRG Board and, in one case, to SRG’s external auditor at the time, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Friday’s ASX announcement, and subsequent media coverage initiated by SRG, amounts to victimisation of these whistleblowers, and is causing them additional damage.”