I understand the difference semantically, im saying the headline is going to be “Jackie O was terminated after Kyle complaint” and that’s how most people are going to understand it. The difference from being fired will not pass the pub test
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Yes I get that. But ARN won’t give two hoots about the pub test. They’re literally fighting for survival. It doesn’t matter one bit if some people think Jackie was “wronged” in some way. Why would ARN care? It’s about the legal standing of things, not public opinion. Also I doubt there will be widespread public sympathy for either of them.
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You know CB said on his latest podcast they KJ might do a podcast in the future…. Just letting everyone know that Kyle hates podcasts. 
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This is a very powerful comment. I completely agree here.
Current management would do anything to remove that previous contract from ever being signed.
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Another day another article
Except that was yesterday’s article.
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Do you think there’s a chance the optics of what they’ve done could backfire though? Jackie is wealthy and influential. She’s made a bullying complaint and the result has been her dismissal. She could make them look pretty bad in a way that might matter to them
That’s a risk that they have to understand really well. The contract’s size gives K&JO quite a potential amount of leverage.
This decision isn’t possible without considering plans B, C, D if this needs to go to court.
Everyone’s favourites, including their mums, Ben & Liam gear up for KIIS 1023 Adelaide launch on April 1
There have been advantages to the delayed start of Ben & Liam in the Morning on the newly branded KIIS 1023 Adelaide. Ben Harvey, Liam Stapleton and producer Belle Jackson have been able to get everyone onside ready for the official launch on Wednesday April 1
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Not really IMO. All she can do is take them to court and may well get a judgement in her favour. But I don’t see how any perceived negative optics would affect ARN in their day to day business moving forward. Especially as they will also be seen to have removed the “problem” ie. Kyle.
So could ANY workplace do this?
Let’s say you work in an office. You are a contractor and not an employee, despite having full time hours and a 5am start five days a week. Your co worker is bullying you. You complain about them and say their harassment has made the situation unworkable. Because your contract specifies you have to work with others, you’re out of a job.
Are we seriously saying that’s legal?
It is legal. If you want the same protections as a FTE, be a FTE, but don’t expect the same pay packet. There’s a difference between what’s legally right and what’s morally right. Legally, Jackie hasn’t been fired.
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Are they saying they would have launched the show from somewhere else had it not been for the delay?
So basically as long as someone’s a contractor, they have no recourse if they’re being abused at work and you can actually in effect punish them for complaining. Geez that is dark. I’ve done contract work and I knew we had less rights but that is really bad. They’re just trying to make less and less people “employees” of everything. This is not something I expected to learn from this
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Kyle is well documented as being a bully. Simply google “Is Kyle Sandilands a bully?”, then “Is Nova’s Ryan Fitzgerald a bully?”
I reckon that the multimillion-dollar contract would only have made him worse. A bully may thrive on power and this contract cemented in his mind his utter importance at ARN - it would have made him certain of his expert and authoritative power and this would just add to his coercive power. I also think the failure of the show in Melbourne may have made Kyle more volatile. King Kyle was not performing, and this puts at risk the power of his $100M contract.
It seems that the an on-air dispute was ARN’s excuse to fix an incredibly toxic workplace and a work contract that that only made financial sense if the Kyle and Jackie O Show was successful in three or four markets - not the sole Sydney market. It’s interesting that the dispute between the duo was about Jackie’s ability to communicate with the audience and create a top rating show. Kyle’s frustration about the ability of their show to work in Melbourne was being taken out on Jackie.
Kyle’s gone from King Kyle when the contract was signed in November 2023 to “please do not enter these premises” in only two years and three months.
Alan Jones and 2GB - Kyle Sandilands and KIIS. Occasionally radio personalities cannot manage/handle their power, and they end up not being allowed within 100 metres of a radio station. Others can manage the fame and moolah and become radio legends in their own right - John Laws, Wendy Harmer, Doug Mulray are examples.
Kyle wanted everybody to kiss his ass. However, I suspect he was not at all liked at ARN (by staff and management alike) and he was the one that had to kiss his job goodbye.
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Never mind that, they were among the main speakers at the upfront 4 months ago.
The upfront handled by the current management, everyone.
There’s a solid 100+ posts of extremely poor legal advise in this thread.
So we know that Kyle and Jackie work as “contractors”. While this means there’re not employees in the same way that an ordinary person working and ordinary job is, it can still mean many things.
It many parts of the law, they would still be considered to have an employee like relationship, which brings with it rights and responsibilities. The services provided under their contacts are their personal services. Jackie’s contract may be between ARN and Henderson Media, but it is for Jackie to present the show. For example, she can’t send it someone to replace her if she decides she doesn’t want to do it anymore. This alone means certain sections of employment law still apply, however it is also true that many employment protections don’t apply for people paid significant amounts.
The law states that contractors have the same rights to a safe workplace, free from bullying, as permanent employees. Jackie therefore has the same right to complain about bullying and expect ARN to do something to remedy that situation in the same way they’d have to for an employee. In any workplace, it is not acceptable for the bullied person to be let go because they are unable to work with the bully. While there will often be cases where it’s impractical find a resolution because the people have to work together, if the victim has to leave it would commonly be accompanied by compensation. The employer would have to investigate, try to find a resolution and if necessary discipline the bully before anything could be done about the victim’s contract. If the victim is unable to work in the short term is becomes a workcover matter.
That same process would have to play out here. The contract may make the intricacies of it different, but ARN have jumped the gun. ARN told us that THEY terminated Jackie’s contract. That means she didn’t say anything to the effect or her no longer being able or willing to fulfill her contract, because that would mean she’d terminated the contract. ARN terminiating the contract means that ARN is unwilling to meet the terms of the contract.
We know the contract isn’t fully rigid. We know there’s a death clause what says what happens if either one of them die. There are presumably other clauses about if one of them can’t work - at the very least if they were worried about Kyle dying (which they’ve talked about being the catalyst for the death clause) they would also have an illness clause. If either side has signed a contract of this size without every possible scenario being covered they’re idiots. Talent contacts are also rarely tied to the specific timeslot - we regularly see talent get shafted other timeslots when it’s decided to end their show while they’re still in contract.
Lets not forget that the chairman of the board is unchanged. ie. the person who has the ultimate sign off on any significant contract.
This is not in anyway true, nor is it the reason why significant talent have their contracts structured through separate entities.
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They were told separately by ARN that they couldn’t talk to each other. And they found that out by… talking to each other.
news.com.au understands ARN has not told the shock jock how he can remedy the situation.
I’d be shocked if they had.
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Let’s not forget that if they weren’t part of the Upfronts presentation, how weird it would look that ARN’s biggest show wasn’t involved.
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Good!