Rugg v Ryan: We’ve been denied a powerhouse test case on work ethics

I was completely confused when powerhouse Monique Ryan, the federal member for Kooyong, hired powerhouse Sally Rugg. Why would one twinkling star hire another, when there is only so much firmament to go around?

So when the predictable falling out happened, I had mixed feelings. Should I back the activist whose work I had always admired? Or should I, heaven forfend, back the boss because I admired her, ahem, work ethic?

The story so far. Rugg, charismatic activist and star of the successful marriage equality campaign, sued her boss Ryan, former medical head honcho, over hostile conduct. She launched a legal challenge for unfair dismissal over claims she was sacked for refusing to work unreasonable hours. Late last month, Rugg settled, accepting an offer of about $100,000 to abandon her claim. All sides have agreed to pay their own legal costs.

Depressing. Depressing because there is one part of the case that might have made a difference to all of us – the untried bit which allows employees to refuse unreasonable requests by their bosses to do additional work.

Oh god. If anyone was paying attention at all to this mayhem – anyone besides Canberra bubblers and their voyeurs – this was the bit that really mattered.

This was the moment that might have given us permission to tell our employers, the ones sending demanding emails at 10pm and wanting an answer then and there, to bugger off. I mean, I’ve said that to bosses in the past and paid for my apparent incivility – but we all need the ability to say no. Whether it’s saying no to the deranged anti-flexibility crew or to the bosses who can’t manage to pay their employers timely super, or no to the wage thieves or no to staying back to finish off work which could easily be done after the kids are asleep, we need that power. In some of these cases, the law doesn’t help us much.

Can I say I am disappointed that a court case settled and saved all parties heaps of hard cash and heartache? Because I am so disappointed. We will never get a Federal Court judge giving a decision that explains what reasonable hours are. Someone needs to because, on the whole, our employers have no bloody idea.

Shae McCrystal is the only professor of labour law I feel I can ring late at night to share my pain. I tell her I’m pissed off. In a more scholarly way, she knows exactly what I mean.