A judge ruled that a former manager at Sydney law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell and a top partner will pay penalties for failing to pay the manager’s entitlements, resulting in a payment of nearly $185,000.
In late 2016, Elizabeth Kelly stepped down from her role as general manager of Atanaskovic Hartnell Corporate Services, a company that provided support staff to the law firm. In 2017, she initiated legal action against both the company and the firm, alleging that she had not received her rightful compensation and that the workplace was not adequately safe.
Kelly won significant parts of her case in March last year. On Thursday, the Federal Circuit and Family Court handed down a decision on the civil penalties that should be imposed on the company and one of the firm’s founding partners, John Atanaskovic, for breaching the Fair Work Act by failing to pay Kelly her full entitlements including accrued annual leave. The entitlements totalled more than $130,000.
Judge Sophie Given ordered the company to pay Kelly $153,900 in penalties and Atanaskovic to pay her $30,780, totalling $184,680.
Last year, retired Federal Circuit and Family Court Judge Rolf Driver made a similar ruling, stating that the company and Atanaskovic engaged in a plan to evade paying Kelly’s rightful benefits. This was achieved, in part, by filing a cross-claim against her.
The scheme was “the brainchild of Mr Atanaskovic”, Driver said.
The judge deemed it “generous” to call the timing of Kelly’s entitlements payment as “eleventh hour.” She mentioned that the payment was made just days before the scheduled hearing to decide if civil penalties should be imposed on the company and Atanaskovic.
In his earlier judgment, Driver said: “Mrs Kelly resigned because she could no longer bear the continuing denigration of her by Mr Atanaskovic.”
He said that in “former times, Mr Atanaskovic would be described as a person who does not suffer fools gladly. In modern parlance, he would be described as a bully. That is the description which I prefer.”
Driver found Atanaskovic Hartnell Corporate Services, which employed Kelly between April 2004 and November 2016, breached “the employment contract by failing to protect Mrs Kelly from the harm inflicted upon her by Mr Atanaskovic”. “Further, I find that Mr Atanaskovic is liable for rendering the workplace unsafe and for the harm he caused,” he said.
He ordered last year that Kelly be paid $30,000 in compensation “for the hurt, humiliation and distress that Mr Atanaskovic caused her”, a sum for which Atanaskovic and the company were jointly liable.
