Super Retail deleted key emails to suppress complaints, court documents claim
A former co-company secretary of Super Retail Group has made a string of sensational claims about an alleged cover-up at the retailer over an illicit affair between the CEO and HR boss, plus abuse of corporate governance rules.
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Super Retail Group’s whistleblower system was allegedly “significantly compromised” by its chairman Sally Pitkin and another board member to suppress staff complaints of an alleged affair between its chief executive and human resources boss, which also saw emails and board minutes deleted, new court documents claim.
A concise statement of claim by former Super Retail co-company secretary Amelia Berczelly, who is suing the retailer, also claims that Super Retail CEO Anthony Heraghty on more than one occasion attempted to “bully, intimidate and coerce” her into amending the minutes of a December board meeting and a related board paper.
Ms Berczelly feared that certain executives had been replaced, and their duties changed, to suppress whistleblower reports of the affair between the CEO and another powerful executive, court documents claim.
“In or around early February 2024, the Applicant (Ms Berczelly) was informed that the Chair (Ms Pitkin) had directed another employee to arrange the deletion of her Super Retail email account, which the Applicant feared in the circumstances was an intention to delete documents, and which she considered (together with her other compliance-related concerns) meant it was untenable for her to remain as Company Secretary and corporate counsel,” the court documents claim.
Ms Berczelly is claiming Super Retail failed in its duty to “take reasonably practicable steps to protect (her) from repeated risks to (her) health and safety arising from an unsafe workplace”.
Ms Berczelly, who has been unemployed since she was fired earlier this year, is arguing that the events at Super Retail caused her to suffer hurt, humiliation, stress, anxiety, distress and embarrassment as well as harm and injury, resulting in unfitness for work and damage to her reputation and professional standing.
Super Retail owns Rebel Sport, Supercheap Auto, BCF and Macpac.
The company faces lawsuits from Ms Berczelly as well as former chief legal officer Rebecca Farrell over allegations of workplace bullying. The cases were made public earlier this year and included a number of sensational claims. One court document also claimed there was a toxic work culture within Super Retail that extended to senior executives and board members – including accusations the chief executive Mr Heraghty misused company funds to carry on an illicit affair with the head of human resources, along with bullying, harassment and fiery staff meetings where the CEO spat and yelled at at managers.
Super Retail has denied all the allegations and recently issued concerns notices to Ms Berczelly and Ms Farrell, threatening the pair with defamation proceedings over some of their allegations.
Ms Berczelly’s case, according to fresh court documents, centres on the alleged conduct of Super Retail and certain of its directors and executives, and their treatment of Ms Berczelly following the $4bn retailer’s receipt of certain complaints and whistleblower allegations from Ms Berczelly and others concerning corporate governance issues.
Ms Berczelly, who was later sacked, was not aware that two anonymous reports were lodged through Super Retail’s whistleblower complaints system Whispli in November and December, alleging an undisclosed intimate relationship between Mr Heraghty and chief human resources officer Jane Kelly.
“From around 5 December 2023, the Applicant (Ms Berczelly) started to observe, and be informed, that Super Retail’s whistleblower system was significantly compromised,” her statement of claim says.
Ms Berczelly’s statement of claim says in early December, management of the Whispli system was allocated exclusively to Ms Kelly’s reports, Paul Harvey and Michelle Hitchener. Mr Harvey replaced the chief legal officer, Ms Farrell, as Super Retail’s integrity officer under the whistleblower policy.
“The Applicant (Ms Berczelly) was informed about these changes by Farrell on around 9 December 2023. Farrell informed the Applicant that the board chair, (Sally) Pitkin, and another board member had directed those changes, and that she was concerned that the changes had been made to suppress whistleblower reports,” the court documents claim.
Later Ms Berczelly claims she was approached by one of the anonymous whistleblowers who had used the Whispli system to say that amongst other things “that they had lost trust in the board’s investigation of the matters contained in their whistleblower disclosure” and “feared retaliation if their identity was exposed”.
The court documents also claim that a confidential board meeting was held on December 15 without Ms Berczelly’s involvement or knowledge as company secretary, and that the company was in breach of the Corporations Act because Mr Heraghty and Super Retail chair Ms Pitkin refused to provide the signed minutes and board papers of that meeting to her for inclusion in Super Retail’s statutory minute books.
Ms Berczelly’s statement says that later in February, she became aware that Ms Pitkin had directed another employee to arrange the deletion of her Super Retail email account, which she feared was intended to delete documents, and she considered it was untenable for her to remain as company secretary and corporate counsel.
From around November 2022, the Ms Berczelly made certain complaints to Ms Farrell as its chief legal officer regarding corporate governance concerns and an unsafe working environment, the court documents claim.
These concerns included that the change of Super Retail’s Integrity Officer was in breach of the company’s then whistleblower policy because it had not been approved by the full board or Ms Farrell, and Whispli was now under the exclusive control of the human resources department, being Mr Harvey and his report, Mr Hitchener – who were both reports of Ms Kelly.
The case is continuing.
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