The company, Redflex, a red light camera company, is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and has its headquarters in Melbourne. The Australian woman, a Ms Catherine Petzel, has filed a lawsuit regarding disparaging remarks by the American woman, Karen Finley.
Ms Finley’s remarks compared Australian work ethics unfavourably to American, allegedly stating that Australians didn’t work as hard as Americans. Ms Petzel found the remarks acutely embarrassing.
The court case has been equally abrasively fought. The reported circumstances of the case include information which alleges that Ms Petzel and another Redflex employee were under threat of termination if they didn’t “execute two sales” in 2011 under a performance improvement program.
A male colleague under a similar program was not fired, but Ms Petzel was. Ms Petzel supposedly did in fact sign up a Texas county to Redflex services, but was allegedly terminated anyway, notwithstanding meeting that obligation.
Redflex has demanded that the case be dropped, stating that Ms Petzel was fired for not meeting the terms of the performance improvement program.
Meanwhile, Ms Finley now faces 16 counts of charges related to mail fraud, bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Redflex is in a tricky situation in which the possible loss of contracts in New Jersey and Ohio may cost it an estimated $3.2 million and up to $16 million more in losses from other ventures and changing markets.
The case is attracting a lot of attention in Australia, but not for the obvious reasons. “Fired for being Australian” is a big issue for Aussies. Ten percent of the entire national workforce lives and/or works overseas, particularly in the US, and Redflex is an Australia-based company.
What’s really surprising is that Ms Petzel, or Redflex management, tolerated any remarks regarding “Australian work ethics”. Being called lazy by an American corporate executive is like being called smelly by a skunk.
