After 25 years, a new CEO, then an email: “Dropping like flies”

Vivienne Leggett began working for Hawkesbury Race Club in January 1991, aged 28. For 25 years she found and looked after the sponsors for its race days, paid largely on commission and trusted to run her own patch. In May 2016 the club hired a new chief executive, Greg Rudolph. At their first meeting, the court found, he told her she was earning “too much money”.

What followed was what Justice Rares called “overbearing micromanagement”: interrogation over a $15 parking fee, demands for long answers by close of business, her authority to make routine decisions taken away. In July she emailed him that she was losing sleep. He took legal advice and said nothing about how she was. She told three directors how she was feeling, crying as she did. None of them acted.

On 9 October 2016 the assistant starter invited her to watch a race from the barriers. Mr Rudolph rang and ordered her back. That night she emailed him a complaint and asked him to tell the board. His reply the next morning summoned her “to discuss your work performance”. When she sent in a medical certificate for work stress, he forwarded it to his father-in-law with the comment “Dropping like flies”. She has not been able to work since.

The court found the club negligent. Her email and what she told the directors were warning signs that she was at risk of psychiatric injury if the bullying went unchecked. The performance meeting, and holding back her commissions, were unlawful adverse action because she had complained and taken sick leave. The judge awarded $200,000 under the Fair Work Act, saying the club’s conduct had “effectively destroyed Mrs Leggett’s life”. A later judgment added her past and future lost earnings, free of the NSW workers compensation cap, and agreed penalties of $160,650, payable to her.