‘Toxic conditions’: WA Labor staffers ‘bullied’

Eight women who worked for WA Labor MPs say they were subjected to sexual discrimination and bullying.

A staffer from the office of WA Deputy Premier Roger Cook (pictured) is among eight women who say they either lost their jobs or were forced out due to toxic working conditions. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

Eight women who worked for West Australian Labor MPs say they were subjected to sexual discrimination and bullying and lost jobs or were forced out from toxic working conditions.

Victorian barrister Gerald Grabau says the women are considering a range of actions but will also make direct representations to the WA government and Labor Party for redress. He says it might form a class-action lawsuit focused on the legality of dismissals and whether they suffered discrimination on the basis of being female employees.

“There are elements … that are clear discrimination in the treatment of women. This is an opportunity for Labor to forge a real new deal with women.”

The women include three former electorate officers from Kalamunda MP Matthew Hughes’s office and one woman sacked from the office of Deputy Premier Roger Cook last year on the grounds of a “breakdown in trust”.

The women’s claims do not include sexual harassment alle­gations but that they were singled out for sexist and belittling behaviour while performing their jobs.

They say systemic problems in Labor members’ ministerial and electorate offices give them very little protection.

Janelle Sewell, a former electorate office staffer for Mr ­Hughes, said she was subjected to intimidatory behaviour that in her view made her workplace unsafe.

“For 2½ years I attempted to deal with it, including going to the Labor Party.” She said she eventually sought advice from the HR department of WA Premier and Cabinet but after raising the matter, she was sacked six hours later on the grounds of “irretrievable breakdown” in her working relationship with Mr Hughes.

Another former staff member, Sally Spalding, who left Mr ­Hughes’s office, said a culture of bullying had persisted because many staffers “are people who joined the cult of Labor and accepted it.”

Mr Hughes has strenuously denied the allegations.