A former food inspector at City of Greater Dandenong is suing the council in what is described as an “important first test run” of whistleblower protection laws.
Kim Rogerson, who had left the council after accusing it of being “intent on destroying” catering business I Cook Foods, filed the action at the Supreme Court of Victoria two weeks ago.
“The bi-partisan parliamentary IBAC Committee boosted whistleblower protections in 2019 because the legislation wasn’t being used,” her barrister James Catlin said:
“This proceeding may enable those reforms to be given an important first test run”.
Greater Dandenong chief executive John Bennie said the council’s lawyers were looking at the claims.
“That is a new matter that’s only just arrived with us and we’re still working our way through understanding what is being claimed in that writ.”
Last year, Ms Rogerson and the council reached a confidential workers-comp settlement after a two-year battle for compensation.
She alleged mental injury as a result of workplace bullying, harassment and work-related stress.
For several years, Ms Rogerson had been inspecting I Cook Foods’ factory in Dandenong South.
As part of an investigation into a hospital patient’s death, she’d collected the first listeria samples and swabbing of surfaces on 1 February 2019.
She was on leave during subsequent council inspections that led to the forced closure of ICF – including when a live slug was allegedly planted on the factory floor.
She has claimed a pair of managers tried to pressure her to inflate her two-page report about her visit to I Cook Foods to 11 pages, which she refused to sign off on.
In her worker’s compensation case, Ms Rogerson submitted in court documents that another manager allegedly told her in early 2019 that “there are going to be consequences for you”.
The manager also allegedly said words to the effect of “you’re going to have to answer why this happened” and “this didn’t happen overnight, there will be meetings and things happening to you”, the submission stated.
On 2 April 2019, Ms Rogerson claims she was advised at a meeting that she would be removed from food inspection duties.
The next month, Ms Rogerson allegedly filed for workers’ compensation and publicly ‘blew the whistle’ that council management allegedly tried to pressure her to fabricate evidence against I Cook Foods.
In its notice of defence filed during workers comp proceedings, the council denied Ms Rogerson’s allegations and her entitlement to compensation.
It submitted that the plaintiff’s “claimed mental injury” was caused wholly or predominantly by “reasonable management action”.
The management “action” included counselling Ms Rogerson, suspending or standing her down, investigating alleged misconduct, appraising her performance, and providing leave of absence.
The council argued at two Parliamentary inquiries that its inspectors observed poor food handling and processes at the factory just prior to the health department-ordered closure.
The alleged defects included inadequate staff training in food handling, washing down from high-pressure hoses near where food was being prepared, unclean equipment not properly cleaned and a slug on the floor.
At the inquiries, one of the inspectors denied planting the slug.
