Mecca sued over maternity leave redundancy

The Aussie beauty giant is being sued by its head of brand marketing, who is due to return from maternity leave, for alleged fair work breaches.

Beauty giant Mecca is being sued by its head of brand marketing for alleged fair work breaches.

Mecca’s head of brand marketing, Alethea Larkin – who is currently on maternity leave – lodged her case in the Federal Court last week.

She claims the company failed to consult her properly after she was given less than one day’s notice of a meeting during which she was told a restructure meant her position was at risk of redundancy.

As reported by The Australian, in her statement of claim Ms Larkin alleges Mecca management is contemplating making her position redundant, and that prior to her maternity leave she was made to work unreasonable hours and was subject to “unreasonable behaviour” by Mecca’s chief marketing officer, Kate Blythe.

Mecca’s head of brand marketing Alethea Larkin has taken the beauty giant to court. Picture: LinkedIn

Ms Larkin, whose maternity leave was approved to run from 8 May 2023 to 13 May 2024, claims she unsuccessfully tried to discuss her return to work with the company before receiving an invitation to a meeting from human resources, during which she was told that due to a restructure her position was at risk of redundancy.

“Between 13 December 2023 and 30 January 2024, the Applicant (Ms Larkin) made requests to arrange ‘Keep in Touch Days’ and face-to-face catch ups with Blythe to discuss and facilitate her upcoming return to work,” the court document reads.

“Despite the requests … MECCA refused and or failed to consent to and or facilitate the Applicant’s requests.”

Ms Larkin’s lawyer, Tony Pick, of Hector Douglas HR Legal, told The Australian his client “was ghosted for two months when she was trying to plan her return to work”.

Ms Larkin’s claim states she then received less than 12 hours notice of a meeting, held last Tuesday, “to discuss proposed changes to the marketing team structure and impacts to her role”.

“MECCA notified the Applicant that the Applicant’s parental leave was used by MECCA as an opportunity to ‘test’ if her role could be absorbed into another role,” the court documents state.

She said she was also told no other suitable jobs had been identified for her and that hers was the only position in her team at risk of redundancy.

Ms Larkin said she was then told later on Tuesday a provisional decision had been made to make her role redundant from February 23 or another agreed date.

Ms Larkin is asking the court to stop Mecca from taking further steps in the restructure process until the court matter is finalised.

Mecca is a wildly successful Australian beauty retail chain.

A Mecca spokesperson told The Australian the company is attempting to address the matter.

“This week we started a consultation process that remains underway, and we’re working with the relevant parties to address any concerns and consider feedback,” she said.

“As such, we’re disappointed that the courts have been involved.

“While the matter is before the courts, we’re unable to make any further public comments.”

In her statement of claim, Ms Larkin also alleges that since starting at Mecca in June 2021 she had been required to work more than 38 hours per week and that in 2022 and the first half of 2023 she worked “extremely long hours”.

In addition, Ms Larkin, who was managing a team of 10–12 staff alleges she was “trying to act as a ‘buffer’ to shield them from adverse treatment by Ms Blythe”.

She claims that during her six-month probation period in 2021 she had two or three conversations with HR to report “unreasonable behaviour of Blythe and the unreasonable additional hours”.

Ms Larkin has accused Mecca chief marketing officer Kate Blythe of “unreasonable behaviour”.

“In or about November 2021, after the Applicant had made multiple complaints and inquiries about Ms Blythe’s behaviour, Ms Blythe confronted the Applicant and said words to the effect: ‘You made a mistake raising these issues while you’re on probation’ and ‘you’ve made yourself a target’,” court documents read.

Businesses are required to consult with an employee about major workplace changes likely to have a significant effect on the employee, and give them an opportunity to provide feedback to their employer on the impact of the change.

“Mecca failed to take all reasonable steps to give the Applicant information about and an opportunity to discuss the effect of the Redundancy Decision,” Ms Larkin’s court documents state.