The Federal Court has ordered the University of Western Australia to pay $20,000 to a leading economist for what it described as a “serious breach” of his employment contract.
The Federal Court has ordered the University of Western Australia to pay $20,000 to a leading economist for what it described as a “serious breach” of his employment contract.
The decision is the latest development in a long-running dispute over accusations of sexual harassment made against Professor Michael McAleer by two other UWA academics, Drs Anh Tram Le and Jyothsna Rao Voola.
Dr Le is married to the former head of Professor McAleer’s school of economics and commerce, Professor Paul Miller.
Professor McAleer has consistently and vehemently denied the accusations and is suing Drs Le and Voola for defamation in separate actions in the Supreme Court.
The Federal Court became involved last year when Professor McAleer sought an injunction to prevent UWA’s internal misconduct investigation committee from proceeding without providing particulars of their accusations.
In a decision handed down this month, the court found that, when UWA first took disciplinary action against Professor McAleer in December 2005, it failed to provide him with sufficient information about the allegations to properly consider and respond to them.
It said this amounted to a breach of UWA’s 2004 Enterprise Agreement.
In its defence, UWA admitted the breach and said this had the effect of invalidating the action, but that it was still entitled to take disciplinary action using the May 2006 Enterprise Agreement, which introduced different processes making it more difficult for academics to defend themselves against accusations.
In his judgment, Justice Antony Siopis said the failure to provide Professor McAleer proper particulars was “a serious breach”.
“It is a fundamental element of procedural fairness that a party should know the case which has been made against him or her, so that the person may have a fair opportunity to defend himself or herself,” Justice Siopis said.
“There are other facts which add to the gravity of the breach. The allegations made against the applicant were allegations of serious misconduct.
“The applicant holds a senior position in the academic staff at the university and has an international reputation in his field.
“The allegations are of such a nature they have the potential to damage the reputation of the applicant.
“The university did not, after having initially failed to provide particulars in its letter of January 6 2006, thereafter provide adequate particulars.”
Justice Siopis described the breach as “serious with aggravating circumstances”.
He also rejected UWA’s argument that it could launch a new action under the May 2006 Enterprise Agreement, which came into effect after proceedings were launched against Professor McAleer.
This effectively means UWA must rely on the 2004 Enterprise Agreement in any future disciplinary action against Professor McAleer.
A UWA spokesman said: “The university accepts the court’s ruling concerning the technical breach in the initial proceedings against Professor McAleer.
“The university is pleased that all of Professor McAleer’s other claims were dismissed and it will now proceed with the misconduct investigation against him in accordance with the court’s directions.”
UWA’s external lawyers are Jackson McDonald and until mid-2006 their representative was Maria Saraceni, the current president of the WA Law Society.
UWA also has an in-house legal services office, whose principal task, according to the university’s website, is to provide advice to the vice-chancellor and other senior officers in respect of the business and organisational affairs of the university.
Professor McAleer said: “I am totally astonished to hear the university is referring to a significant penalty as a ‘technical breach’, when Justice Siopis refers to it as a ‘serious breach’ with ‘aggravating circumstances’.
“I am even more astonished to hear the university has issued a media statement advising it will continue with its investigation without first informing me.”