The enterprise software company TechnologyOne has succeeded in getting a full bench of the Federal Court to overturn a record verdict of a $5.2 million payout to a sacked employee overturned.
In a statement issued to the ASX on Thursday last week, TechnologyOne said: "We are pleased that the original judgement in this case has been overturned. This will now proceed to a retrial."
In October last year, the court ordered the company to pay damages to Behnam Roohizadegan, a former manager based in Victoria.
At the time Judge Duncan Kerr ruled that Roohizadegan had been unfairly sacked from his job in 2016, which he had held for a decade, after he complained about being bullied.
In its
ruling, the full bench said Justice Kerr had not taken into account whether the complaints against Roohizadegan had been "a substantial and operative factor" in his dismissal.
When Justice Kerr issued his judgement last year, he had harsh words for TechnologyOne, saying that he had found the company's chief executive Adrian Di Marco had a choice: "to stand with the bullies rather than the bullied. To achieve effective deterrence, CEOs in like positions need to know that such temptations as he faced are to be resisted: and that there will be a not insubstantial price for failing to do so."
But this time around, the court trio of Justices Darryl Rangiah, Richard White and David O’Callaghan said their colleague had not considered the “essential integer” that complaints had played in Roohizadegan’s dismissal.
Whether Roohizadegan's lawyers, Harmers Workplace Lawyers, will continue to act for him in the retrial is unknown as the firm has made no statement about the overturning of the verdict.
iTWire contacted the company by email on Monday and also phoned its media adviser on Tuesday, but nobody answered the call.
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