Award-winning architect Rob Mills settles second court fight with female employee

A female architect has settled a court case in which she alleged bullying and threatening behaviour before she was sacked from her job at an award-winning firm led by Rob Mills.

Internationally renowned architect Rob Mills has settled a court case with a former employee. Picture: supplied

A female architect claimed she was illegally sacked from her job at an award-winning architecture practice after the firm’s founder, Rob Mills, allegedly told her “f..k you Alice” and “drop the act”, according to claims in court documents.

Yan (Alice) Zhou is the second identified female architect to bring a Fair Work dispute against Mr Mills alleging he “constantly threatened and bullied her” over about three years, but late last week she abruptly settled the case ahead of a scheduled trial in May.

News about Ms Zhou’s case came after reports ex-Rob Mills architect Juliana Junqueira also lodged a dispute with the Fair Work Commission and 13 other former staff members alleged a toxic workplace culture was allowed to fester at the company.

Architect Rob Mills.

A licensed and regulated sector, architects have raised concerns about the efforts of state-based registration boards to investigate allegations against Rob Mills Architecture and Interiors.

While Ms Zhou alleged she was fired because she made several complaints by email and verbally about her treatment in the workplace between September 2019 and May 2023, Mr Mills claimed she was dismissed due to poor performance including on the “Kambala” and “Redmyre” projects.

In Mr Mills’ defence documents, obtained by The Australian, he further alleged “substantial cost overruns and delays took place in relation to the Kambala and Redmyre projects”.

“Upon becoming aware of the extent of the applicant’s poor performance, the first respondent terminated the applicant’s employ-ment on 30 May 2023,” Mr Mills defence papers claimed.

The Kambala project has been listed in court documents.

He denied Ms Zhou was dismissed “for an unlawful reason” and rejected the other allegations against him.

A spokeswoman for Mr Mills said he would not comment on legal matters.

“For three decades RMA has been committed to delivering world-class outcomes for our clients. And that commitment continues,” she said.

In court documents, Mr Mills claimed Ms Zhou was appointed to lead projects in Victoria, including in Melbourne’s wealthy eastern suburb of Kew on Lansell Road, and southeastern suburb of Brighton on Glyndon Avenue and in Portsea, a coastal location in the state’s southwest.

The documents also identify an address in the NSW suburb of Strathfield on Redmyre Road as among the properties that were likely to be the subject of a now abandoned trial. In an email sent on Friday, law firm Colin Biggers & Paisley representing Mr Mills said the proceedings very recently settled “in principle”.

“We expect that the in principle settlement to be documented and finalised over the long weekend or early next Tuesday, if not sooner,” the email, seen by The Australian, said.

“We anticipate it will involve the dismissal or discontinuance of the substantive proceeding with no orders as to costs, and otherwise include a confidential written settlement between the parties to the proceeding.”

The Redmyre project has been listed in court documents.

While the settlement terms are not known, legal sources said when cases like this settle, it usually involves some payment of money.

The case and details about the dispute could now remain shrouded in mystery, after further documents were not released to The Australian.

The Rob Mills Architecture and Interior website contains renders of what appear to be the residential Kambala and Redmyre projects. There is no written description of the Redmyre project, while a blurb for Kambala claimed “our design won the support of neighbours and council alike in just under five months”.

“This project demonstrates the reputation of RMA in Sydney’s most prestigious locations,” the website says.

“Since day one, our client has enjoyed the certainty of time, cost and quality.”

Ms Zhou’s statement of claim alleged Mr Mills told her she was “at risk of being dismissed for redundancy” if she did not admit fault with “all past issues on the Kambala project and secondly that she did not agree to an amendment to her contract … so as to remove an entitlement to be paid overtime”.

“The applicant stated to Mills that given her heavy workload any redundancy would not be genuine and the threat of redundancy was causing her mental duress and crippling anxiety,” she said in court documents.

Ms Zhou did not respond to a request for comment.

Ms Zhou alleged that when agreeing to an instruction from Mr Mills during a phone call, he responded “ ‘f..k you Alice’, and swore further at her”.

“The applicant asked Mills to stop using such language and for him to communicate respectfully,” she alleged in court documents.

“Mills responded with words to the effect of ‘drop the act’.

“She complained that Mills constantly threatened and bullied her.

“The respondent effected the dismissal because, or for reasons including, that the applicant exercised workplace rights by making any or all of the complaints.”