Kyle Sandilands Returns To Court As Lawyers Defend Alleged Workplace Misconduct

The federal court has heard Kyle Sandilands’ workplace conduct was “contractually desired” as his legal battle with his former employer continues, while former co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson claims he left her psychologically harmed.

Both the shock jock and Henderson have launched legal proceedings following the cancellation of their $100 million contracts with Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) after an on-air argument between the pair during their former long-running program, the Kyle and Jackie O Show.

CBC has countered their claims and is seeking damages breach of contract, legal costs, and losses in advertising revenue and profit.

Sandilands arrived to court this morning in a Rolls-Royce, telling reporters the legal battle was getting “pretty ugly”.

“If you know how these procedures work, there’s strategy and then there’s truth and once we get inside and we get all the answers out, the truth will raise its head.”

Inside there was deliberation as to whether the cases should be heard at the same time. Henderson claims her former co-star caused her “significant psychological harm”, and does not want to be in the same court room as him, but ARN Media lawyer, Tom Blackburn SC, said there were “very powerful reasons” to combine the cases as the context and background are mostly identical.

“If you buy Kyle, you get Kyle”

ARN alleges that Sandilands breached his contract by repeatedly belittling and verbally abusing his colleagues, including KIIS FM executives, and audience members on-air. On the day he and Henderson argued, he had been ranting about the work ethic of his peers, telling one staff member on air, “We’re onto you that you’re doing hardly any work, you spend most of your time here eating and then down at the gay sauna.”

His representation Scott Robertson SC said the behaviour was contractually agreed upon.

“To put it bluntly, if you buy Kyle, you get Kyle,” Robertson said. “The kind of conduct in which he engaged was conduct that was desired – contractually desired, that’s the word in the contract – and indeed was monetised.”

Robertson told the court that although Sandilands’ alleged misconduct may be serious for the purposes of employment law, it was not “serious misconduct for the purposes of this particular contract”.

“And whilst I don’t like this conduct – me sitting here as a citizen, I look at [it] and say, this is not nice conduct, it’s not the kind of conduct that I think someone should engage in – [but] it does not amount to conduct of a kind that entitled the respondents [ARN] to terminate this contract.”

Both on and off-air communication on the Kyle and Jackie O show was captured in a “big brother” style recording, with Robertson telling media Sandilands was likely to admit poor conduct.