Written by Anushka Vineet
ANU is facing allegations of workplace misconduct after the former director of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), Professor Sean Smith, filed a lawsuit for unfair dismissal.
In conversation with The Australian, Smith alleged there was “absolute negligence on the part of ANU Human Resources (HR) and then brutal behaviour to cover it up” and that he was subject to bullying by members of the ANU executive.
Managed by ANU and funded largely by the Federal Government, the NCI is the “home of high-performance computational science”. It provides high-intensity computing services to many governmental departments and universities. Professor Smith was the NCI director from 2018 until his dismissal in December 2024.
In a statement of claims submitted to the Federal Court, Smith stated that there was inaction regarding “instances of serious misconduct” that he reported to ANU HR. He also accused ANU of mishandling an investigation into a complaint against him and of withholding the details regarding his alleged misconduct.
Smith’s legal complaint stems from an incident in 2022 where he was allegedly asked to “performance manage” a deputy director of NCI. Smith reportedly raised the deputy director’s conduct to HR, but no action followed. A year later, the same deputy director allegedly filed complaints against Professor Smith, leading to an investigation, behind which ANU failed to clarify the reasoning with Professor Smith, despite him repeatedly asking them to do so. This resulted in him launching proceedings with the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
Eventually, ANU withdrew the investigation, resulting in the FWC dismissing the allegations. However, a day later, a secondary investigation conducted via a work health and safety independent review commenced.
Smith claims he was let go as a result of the investigation, however, ANU did not provide him the specifics. In mid-2024, Professor Smith made the bullying complaint against the ANU Executive. However, Smith claims that the ANU injury management team “closed the file without addressing substantive factors that were alleged”.
In a Work Health and Safety review, it was found that Professor Smith was terminated because ANU had “lost confidence and trust” in his ability to lead the NCI.
In relation to the report, Smith claims that ANU “was not transparent with their intentions and motives”.
Furthermore, he believes that ANU took “adverse action” when he tried to find out the reason for the allegations against him and for exercising his right to raise complaints against ANU.
A university spokesperson stated that as the matter is currently “before the Federal Court, ANU will not be commenting on any untested and unsubstantial allegations”.
However, they can confirm that “the University will be defending the matter”.
Observer will continue to report on this story as it develops.
Graphics by Shé Chani
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