Super Retail files defence in court case from former employees suing over toxic culture, CEO affair
Super Retail has for the first time revealed how it will defend toxic workplace allegations, claiming a key whistleblower was herself accused of bullying and dismissed rumours of an affair she later relied on for a potential $30m claim.
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Super Retail Group executive turned whistleblower Rebecca Farrell told her former human resources boss Jane Kelly that she didn’t believe rumours of an affair between Ms Kelly and Super Retail CEO Anthony Heraghty, nor was the gossip widespread, according to new court documents.
The claim, contained in Super Retail’s long-awaited defence filed in Federal Court on Friday in workplace litigation brought by Ms Farrell and another whistleblower, Amelia Berczelly, contradicts Ms Farrell’s account that the alleged illicit affair was well known within the senior executive ranks. This relationship, she has claimed, was part of a toxic workplace environment rife with secrecy and intimidation.
Ms Farrell and Ms Berczelly have previously argued in court documents that Mr Heraghty’s then wife knew, and that it poisoned the air at Super Retail.
In one such account by the claimants, Mr Heraghty was allegedly seen resting his hand on Ms Kelly’s thigh while the Super Retail executive leadership team was drinking at a bar. But according to Super Retail, it never happened.
The Brisbane-based company, formerly chaired by Sally Pitkin, conducted a full investigation into the allegations including the undisclosed affair, inappropriate use of company travel, bullying, victimisation, restrictive access to information, poor record keeping and excessive workloads, and found no evidence to support them. It has consistently denied them, particularly around the nature of Mr Heraghty and Ms Kelly’s relationship.
Now, Super Retail is seeking to convince the court, presided over by Justice Michael Lee, that Ms Farrell told Ms Kelly she shouldn’t be troubled by rumours of the affair, contradicting what Ms Farrell has conveyed was an open secret.
The whistleblowers’s lawyers, Harmers, sought a $30m economic loss recovery.
Ms Farrell simply “did not believe such to be true”, the defence documents state with reference to the alleged workplace romance.
“The applicant (Ms Farrell) expressly represented to the CHRO (Ms Kelly) that to the extent there were rumours of a relationship between Heraghty and the CHRO, she (Ms Farrell) did not believe such to be true, did not consider the rumours to be widespread within the ELT (executive leadership team), did not consider that Heraghty needed to be told of them and did not consider that the CHRO ought to be troubled by any such rumours and did not deserve to be the subject of such rumours.” The documents were obtained by The Australian.
Harmers counters this, and said in a statement on Friday that at the time of the conversation between Ms Kelly and Ms Farrell, its client did not yet have sufficient evidence of the alleged affair. That apparently came a month later, via a company whistleblower.
The whistleblowers had also alleged Super Retail’s whistleblower system was “significantly compromised” by Ms Pitkin and another unnamed board member to suppress staff complaints directed at Ms Kelly. Emails and board minutes were deleted, it was claimed in previous accounts to the court. The defence has challenged other claims about the alleged relationship timeline, too. Not only does it deny the moment of apparent intimacy in August 2022 at a bar on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Super Retail denied Mr Heraghty and Ms Kelly were acting strangely in the lobby of a Brisbane hotel.
The company also claims Ms Farrell herself engaged in “bullying” and “intimidation” against another staff member which resulted in a workers compensation claim.
Ms Farrell, the court documents claim, took nine weeks of paid leave – an increase of five weeks on her normal entitlement – so that she could deal with “non-work related matters”.
Before the admission of possible litigation was made public by Super Retail, it claims workplace firm Harmers highlighted how a court case would attract media attention and potentially damage the share price of the $3.18bn owner of Rebel, BCF, Macpac and Supercheap Auto brands.
Backing up this threat, it’s claimed, was a Harmers PowerPoint presentation of newspaper clippings reporting another case Harmers acted on for an employee making similar allegations at a different employer.
These clippings were shown at a mediation meeting between Harmers and Allens, acting for Super Retail, in April 2024.
Harmers raised the issue of the adverse “media attention” which could be “brought to bear” if litigation were to commence. The historic case that was highlighted in the PowerPoint presentation regarding another ASX-listed company was not named, but it was about a workplace sexual relationship.
“(Michael) Harmer asserted to Allens that if the applicant’s (Ms Farrell) and Berczelly’s claims were to become publicly known, then Super Retail’s share price would also be significantly damaged in a manner equivalent to the asserted impact on the other public company’s share price following Harmers bringing a claim against it,” the documents state.
Mr Harmer also told Super Retail’s lawyers the company should expect that it would be hit with a class action claim based on unspecified alleged failures of market disclosure, the defence added.
Super Retail has denied allegations made by Ms Farrell that Mr Heraghty intervened or influenced the outcome of a redundancy payout and exit package for Ms Kelly when she eventually left the retailer.
Ms Farrell and Ms Berczelly were both sacked by Super Retail. Once the most senior women executives at the company, they made a number of scandalous allegations, including that the travel budget was used to further that affair between the CEO and the head of HR.
Court documents previously filed claimed Mr Heraghty’s executive assistant resigned in October 2023 because of the boss’s alleged secret relationship, after having been informed by the CEO’s ex-wife of its existence. When Ms Kelly was later made redundant, she immediately commenced work as a consultant to help Super Retail recruit a new chair and other non-executive directors, court documents claim.
Originally published as Super Retail files defence in court case from former employees suing over toxic culture, CEO affair
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