North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency offers Priscilla Atkins $1.5m settlement ahead of Fair Work ruling
The head of the Territory’s largest legal agency has rejected a $1.5m payout offer ahead of her unfair dismissal case in the Federal Court.
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An embattled Territory legal service could be pushed into insolvency after offering its chief executive a $1.5m settlement over her bungled and illegal sacking.
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency confirmed it offered Priscilla Atkins a $1.5m out-of-court settlement offer ahead of the final Fair Work relief hearing on Monday.
NAAJA apologised to Ms Atkins last month after the Federal Court of Australia found it contravened the Fair Work Act by unlawfully sacking her in early-2023.
The court found Ms Atkins exercised her workplace rights in a complaint alleging bullying and financial impropriety by NAAJA’s financial officer Madhur Evans In late 2022.
The longstanding NAAJA boss was then suspended and later fired from her role in a move Justice Charlesworth ruled was unlawful and breached the Fair Work Act.
Therefore two years — and six acting NAAJA chief executives later — Ms Atkins remains as the official NAAJA boss.
On Monday, Justice Natalie Charlesworth presided over a relief hearing to determine the compensation owed to Ms Atkins by her employer.
NAAJA barrister Robyn Sweet confirmed Ms Atkins had not accepted the $1.5m offer.
In his affidavit, current acting chief executive Anthony Beven warned “a reward of compensation in this matter may result in NAAJA’s insolvency”.
The court heard NAAJA was not authorised to use its regular legal funding — largely from the Commonwealth — for the purposes of a CEO’s payout.
However Ms Atkin’s barrister Malcolm Harding said NAAJA’s financial issues were not a reason to reduce the compensation payment.
“It would be wrong for NAAJA to get the benefit of any financial constraints says it might impose in a way that means Ms Atkins — as the victim of its wrongdoing — is compensated to a lesser extent that what she ought to have been,” Mr Harding said.
He said had this entire debacle not occurred, his client would have remained in her role until the end June 30, 2025 and it was likely her five-year contract would have been renewed.
Mr Harding called for not only the remainder of her contract to be paid out, but the entirety of her next five year salary.
In 2020 Ms Atkins was on a $346,830 a year contract — meaning this proposed settlement would be in excess of $1.73m.
Despite the bitter-and long running legal saga, Ms Atkins said she was still interested in returning to work at NAAJA within two years.
Ms Sweet questioned if Ms Atkins could return to her role, given the history with Ms Evans and the board.
“I have no intention of leaving the organisation, my intention is to resolve the issues in the organisation,” Ms Atkins replied.
She said given her enduring concerns about the alleged misuse of taxpayer money, she would continue to properly report to the Independent Commission Against Corruption and Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Justice Charlesworth heard Ms Atkins faced a “narrow” field of suitable alternative jobs in the Territory, as she said she was unqualified or uninterested in other Aboriginal corporation CEO jobs advertised.
Despite running the Territory’s largest legal agency since 2007, Ms Atkins told the court she held no undergraduate degree and her highest qualification was a Masters of Art in film producing.
However, due to the psychological strain, Ms Atkins said she was unable to return to any work immediately.
Psychiatrist Matthew Tagkalidis said the Eastern Arrernte grandmother had suffered from daily panic attacks, depressive symptoms, and anxiety as a result of the ordeal.
Ms Atkins said she suffered from suicidal thoughts, and on multiple occasions had called family members warning them “I’m going to kill myself”.
“I have a beautiful family, and I don’t want them to grow up without me,” she said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
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