Monique Ryan’s ten complaints against Sally Rugg

As their working relationship fell apart, the Independent member for Kooyong detailed serious concerns over the performance of her chief of staff | READ THE LIST

Monique Ryan and Sally Rugg in happier times.

Monique Ryan’s most serious concerns about the performance of her chief-of-staff Sally Rugg included her alleged failure to update the Kooyong MP’s website, create focus groups and adequately engage with voters.

The Teal MP listed key complaints in a ‘‘personal development plan - feedback tracker’’ she drafted for the Left-wing activist as their working relationship disintegrated amid claims of unreasonable working hours and underperformance.

Lodged in the Federal Court as part of Ms Rugg’s unfair dismissal case against Dr Ryan and the Commonwealth, the plan provides ten specific claims at the centre of the breakdown between the pair.

Ms Rugg, who was employed as the independent politician’s chief-of-staff between July and December 2022, told her boss that she felt the performance improvement plan was not fair or achievable within the proposed deadline of ten working days, according to an updated statement of claim released by the court this week. Ms Rugg also disputed the accuracy of the ten complaints set out by Dr Ryan.

Dr Ryan’s ten key complaints about Ms Rugg’s performance, according to a copy of the plan lodged in the court, were:

‘‘Strategies have not been developed and executed.

‘‘Official website has not been kept up to date.

‘‘Focus groups have not been created.

‘‘Limited engagement with community/constituents to date.

‘‘Staff have not received appropriate supervision, communication re responsibilities, oversight of activities, performance management.

‘‘New staff have not received any formal feedback re their performance.

‘‘Part-timer has not received feedback whether their employment will be extended.

‘‘Staff have not been compliant with submission of leave applications etc in recent months.

‘‘Portfolios of work responsibilities in office have not been allocated.

‘‘Need a detailed budget for publications, media events, comms and other EO initiatives for next 12 months.

Monique Ryan leaves court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Sally Rugg leaves court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

On December 20, Dr Ryan, according to the court documents, said Ms Rugg’s performance across strategic planning, community engagement, staff management, and budget development would be reviewed on January 23.

At 4.38pm that day, according to her statement of claim, Ms Rugg sent Dr Ryan an email setting out her concerns about the process:

‘‘Shortly thereafter, on December 20, Ms Rugg sent Dr Ryan an email in which Ms Rugg complained that the performance improvement plan did not follow fair process, was not achievable, and did not follow a fair process of dealing with Ms Rugg’s performance, and asked Dr Ryan to withdraw it.’’

Ms Rugg has launched legal action against Dr Ryan and the Commonwealth in the Federal Court seeking a declaration that the teal MP was involved in contraventions of the Fair Work Act and the awarding of damages.

Ms Rugg has claimed that she regularly worked 65 hours a week during her six months employed by Dr Ryan, for which she was paid a salary and allowances of more than $160,000.

According to a spreadsheet of her working hours lodged with the court, Ms Rugg worked a total of 84 hours on Sundays and 38 hours on Saturdays during her months in Dr Ryan’s office.

These included 9 hours and 38 minutes on Saturday, August 6 and 6 hours and 33 minutes on Sunday, August 7. On Sunday, August 21, Ms Rugg’s document states that she worked 10 hours and 25 minutes and a few weeks later, on Sunday, September 4, she worked 11 hours and 29 minutes. On Sunday, September 25, Ms Rugg worked 13 hours and 39 minutes.

Dr Ryan declined to comment when contacted on Thursday by The Australian. ‘‘Given that the matter is still before the court I’ll not be commenting publicly at this stage,’’ she said.

Ms Rugg declined to comment.