Ex-Logan CEO Sharon Kelsey launches appeal against unfair dismissal and adverse costs order

The CEO whose sacking triggered a series of events that resulted in Logan City Council’s dismissal is seeking leave to appeal her unfair dismissal case.

Former Logan City Council mayor Luke smith and former CEO Sharon Kelsey.

The woman whose sacking triggered a series of events that resulted in Logan City Council’s dismissal, is seeking leave to appeal her unfair dismissal case and overturn an adverse costs decision.

Lawyers for Logan City Council’s former CEO Sharon Kelsey were in the Supreme Court’s court of appeal on Wednesday to seek leave to appeal a 2021 decision which discharged Ms Kelsey’s unfair dismissal claim.

They also asked the court to consider allowing an appeal which would overturn an adverse costs decision made in July by Justice Peter Davis.

Justice Davis’s order was for Ms Kelsey to pay the costs that seven former Logan councillors endured from a 2022 appeal, which the courts refused to allow.

It is believed Ms Kelsey negotiated an out-of-court settlement for the appeal costs of about $20,000 with the council’s former mayor Luke Smith.

On Wednesday, justices Philip McMurdo, Peter Flanagan and Paul Freeburn reserved their decision on whether to grant Ms Kelsey’s appeal requests.

Ms Kelsey has negotiated an out-of-court settlement for about $20,000 with former mayor Luke Smith over adverse costs for an appeal that did not proceed.

If her appeals are granted, the court will proceed to determine whether Queensland Industrial Relations Commission vice president Daniel O’Connor’s decision to discharge her unfair dismissal case was valid.

Ms Kelsey took her former employer and eight ex-Logan councillors to the industrial court in 2017 claiming seven councillors voted not to extend her contract after her probation period because she was a whistleblower against the former mayor Mr Smith.

Her claims became the basis for heated questioning during a Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee inquiry into the Crime and Corruption Commission, once headed by chairman Alan MacSporran.

Her case was also part of evidence before the Fitzgerald 2.0 inquiry this year.

Ms Kelsey, the Logan CEO from 2017 to 2018, unsuccessfully sued the council, the former mayor Mr Smith and seven councillors after she failed a probationary period of employment and was terminated.

She claimed the councillors were “improperly motivated” when terminating her employment after she gave the Crime and Corruption Commission information about Mr Smith.

After losing her case in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in April 2021, Ms Kelsey lodged an improperly made appeal before applying to amend that appeal application.

She lost her initial appeal in the Industrial Court in May before lodging an application to amend her appeal.

In July, Justice Davis ordered Ms Kelsey to pay the court costs for an appeal she tried to launch.