UTS cancer researcher claims she was fired for working too much

A Sydney university is being sued by a former senior lecturer and researcher who says she was fired for working too much.

A leading Australian cancer researcher says she has been sacked by a Sydney university for clocking up too many hours at work and conducting lab research after hours.

Rosetta Martiniello-Wilks, once touted by the University of Technology Sydney for her strong work-ethic and “track rec­ord in taking basic science discoveries and translating them into the clinic”, is locked in a legal tussle with her former employer after the university accused of her “serious misconduct” and accessing a laboratory after hours.

The row has been raging for almost four years, Ms Martiniello-Wilks first complaining in September 2017 she had been forced to work up to 70 hours a week to keep up with her never-diminishing workload.

It escalated in February when UTS officially sacked the 56-year-old because of allegations of ­“serious misconduct”.

In a letter, UTS told her she would be dismissed “effective immediately” because she had allegedly taken “items” from the university without approval and had accessed a laboratory after hours without approval.

In a statement of claim filed by Ms Martiniello-Wilks to the Federal Court, she said the serious misconduct she was accused of amounted to “working more than 35 hours per week” and “not returning her key to a Higher Degree Research” room.

She also claimed the university breached the Fair Work Act after they terminated her employment, subjected her to performance improvement plans and accused her of stealing university property.

Ms Martiniello-Wilks, at the university for 10 years as a senior lecturer and researcher working on the development of tests to detect prostate cancer, raised more than $14m in research and infrastructure funding from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Movember and the Cancer Institute NSW/Sydney Vital among other charities and research funds.

She is suing for more than $700,000 in lost earnings and “pain and suffering” as a result of the dismissal.

Ms Martiniello-Wilks claimed in a complaint emailed to the university in September 2017 they “refused” to change her workload, which led her to work “approximately 70 hours per week”.

In the same complaint, she said UTS had failed to accommodate her physical disability. Neither she nor the university could find the email with her complaint.

Ms Martiniello-Wilks’s lawyer would not comment on the case while it is before the courts. The university was also unable to comment. A mediation meeting has been scheduled in October.