A Woolworths Caringbah shelf stacker is personally suing outgoing Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci over claims he should be held vicariously liable for sexual harassment and discrimination.
The claim against Banducci was filed in the Federal Court last month with allegations that, while Marc Estonina was working as a front-end team member at the Sutherland Shire-based branch of the supermarket giant, he was discriminated against based on his gender and sexual orientation.
Estonina, who started with the company in 2007 and is self-represented on the matter, claims Banducci breached sections of the Fair Work Act that relate to a company’s responsibility to ensure its workers are not discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or age.
He also alleges Banducci should be forced to take responsibility for sexual harassment he experienced while working in the store. The claims do not suggest that Banducci personally discriminated against or sexually harassed Estonina, just that he should be held responsible for the alleged misconduct.
While the claim has been described as “highly unorthodox” by Swaab workplace and employment partner Michael Byrnes, it does come at a challenging time for the Woolworths brand after scrutiny over its Australia Day sales and price gouging scandals.
Byrnes told The Australian that it is very unusual for a CEO to be personally sued by one of their employees.
“In circumstances like this, we have an employee who is a team member in a store, and it’s highly unorthodox and unusual to be suing the CEO personally,” he said. “It’s entirely conventional and reasonable to seek to sue your employer, but to bring proceedings individually against the CEO is unorthodox”.
“When you’re dealing with a CEO who has thousands and thousands of employees, the fact that one of those employees might have or is alleged to have been subject to conduct which breaches the Act doesn’t mean the CEO is therefore also liable for that breach. As a general concept, that seems like a far-fetched proposition,” he said.
“The applicant seems to be claiming that because Brad Banducci didn’t do enough to stop this conduct or perhaps he didn’t enforce a policy or something, therefore he is personally liable”.
The case against Banducci is due to be heard on August 7th before Judge Nicholas Manousaridis.
This is just the latest in a long list of controversies surrounding the outgoing CEO, who reportedly earns an annual salary of $7m. Banducci announced that he would be retiring from the company in February this year. The news came as the company was embroiled in a row over price-gouging and his very public spat with ABC Four Corners reporter Angus Grigg, in which he seemed to suggest that because Rod Sims, former boss of the competition regulator, had retired, his views were no longer relevant.
View this post on Instagram
Back in February, Banducci was criticised for removing Australia Day merchandise from the shelves of stores across the country. In an appearance on Nine‘s Today Show at the time, Banducci admitted that communication surrounding the decision to pull Australia Day merchandise from their shelves could have been better handled. “I think we could clearly have done a better job of explaining our decision; that’s why I’m here,” he said in response to questioning from host Karl Stefanovic.
Amidst the chaos, Woolworths announced earlier this year that the group’s net profits for the first half of the 2024 financial year would be $929 million—up 2.5 per cent from the same time last year. However, the retail giant said these profits were offset by the impairment of its New Zealand operations and the loss of its 9.1 per cent stake in Endeavour Group, which owns Dan Murphy’s and a range of venues.
B&T contacted Woolworths, but it was unable to comment at this time as the matter is still pending in the courts.
