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Rugby league journalist Paul Kent has branded his sacking by News Corp as a “sham” in a scathing attack of the media giant, who he claims did not afford him a proper opportunity to be heard before it terminated his employment over a street fight in Sydney’s inner west.
The 54-year-old accuses the company of multiple breaches of employment law including by not paying him while he was stood down for seven months last year defending domestic violence charges on which he was found not guilty.
Paul Kent leaves the Downing Centre court complex in Sydney in May.Credit: Kate Geraghty
In documents released to this masthead by the Fair Work Commission, Kent claims Nationwide News, a subsidiary of News Corp in Australia, “acted in a way that was arbitrary, capricious [and] unreasonable” in summarily dismissing him on May 30, indicating he may pursue it for damages in the Federal Court.
A month earlier he had been suspended from duties for a second time in a year after vision of a violent altercation between him and another man outside a bar in Rozelle emerged and triggered a police investigation.
Kent, who co-hosted the program NRL 360 on Fox Sports and was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, was charged with affray and in July pleaded guilty and was placed on a good-behaviour bond, in a Sydney court, failing to have the matter dealt with on mental health grounds.
By then, he had already received his marching orders from News Corp, his employer of 24 years, after an internal investigation into the brawl determined he had violated its misconduct and code of conduct policies and adversely affected News’ reputation.
Kent alleges in an unfair dismissal application to be heard in Sydney next week that his conduct did not justify instant dismissal and that he had not had the chance to give his side of the story before he was shown the door, having advised the company that he was unfit for work and getting mental health treatment when he was asked on May 23 to show cause why he should not be terminated.
“The move to summarily dismiss [Kent] for serious misconduct bespeaks a process that was rushed, lacked a proper operational basis” and was “specifically calculated to remove [Kent] from [News Corp’s] business”, his application said.