Radio host Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson has launched legal proceedings against KIIS FM, claiming she is owed at least $82m following her sacking.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the ASX on Tuesday, ARN Media said that Henderson was following in the footsteps of her former colleague co-host Kyle Sandilands in suing the network.<\/p>\n
Henderson is alleging that her termination \u2014 which came in the wake of an on-air blow up with Sandilands \u2014 represented adverse action.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, Henderson sent a \u201ccomplaint letter\u201d to KIIS\u2019s parent company saying she \u201ccannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands\u201d and made psychosocial, health and safety and bullying complaints.<\/p>\n
The company said that Henderson alleged she was sacked because she exercised her workplace rights.<\/p>\n
Henderson is claiming compensation of \u201cat least\u201d $82m, payment of a pecuniary penalty, as well as interest and costs.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the proceedings have been filed in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation, an ARN subsidiary.<\/p>\n
ARN said it intended to fight the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cARN disputes the claims,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt intends to defend the proceedings. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the early stage of the matter, ARN is unable to reliably estimate the outcome or any potential financial impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandilands has also launched action in the Federal Court, claiming unlawful termination after his $100m, 10-year contract was ripped up.<\/p>\n
Sandilands\u2019 contract was torn up in the wake of an on-air blow up with Henderson in February, during which he told her she was \u201coff with the fairies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Henderson left mid-show, telling Sandilands she would \u201cnever say things like that\u201d about him.<\/p>\n
Sandilands\u2019 contract was terminated shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n
The Federal Court was told last week that Sandilands is seeking immediate reinstatement, as his lawyers asked for an expedited hearing.<\/p>\n
Court documents tendered on behalf of Sandilands argue he often played the role of the \u201cdominant and abrasive personality\u201d on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, and that his comments to his co-host were \u201ccongruent\u201d with the \u201crobust character\u201d that the network \u2018desired\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Sandilands generally performed the role of the dominant and abrasive personality who was deliberately outrageous and often offensive, whilst Ms Henderson played a moderating role as a warmer and more emotionally attuned character,\u201d the documents say.<\/p>\n
Henderson\u2019s $100m contract was axed by ARN after she told her bosses she could no longer work with Sandilands.<\/p>\n
The court was told last week that Sandilands was seeking to be put back on air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radio host Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson has launched legal proceedings against KIIS FM, claiming she is owed at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[188280,188276,188278,156,25509,169311,145184,157,111,174651,139,69,84219,188279,188275,188277],"class_list":{"0":"post-356160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bullying-complaints","9":"tag-complaint-letter","10":"tag-contract-termination","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-federal-court","13":"tag-jackie-o-henderson","14":"tag-kyle-sandilands","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newswire-court","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-parent-company","21":"tag-radio-host","22":"tag-steve-zemek","23":"tag-workplace-rights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}