Former CEO sues DST Global Solutions
The former Australian managing director of specialist financial services provider DST Global Solutions, Ian Mathieson, is suing the company over what he alleges is a breach of contract for failing to maintain his income protection insurance and pay out entitlements after he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Mathieson's claim has been outlined by law firm Maurice Blackburn which has described DST Global Solutions as being a "very successful company [that] has not honoured its obligations or promises".
Maurice Blackburn principal Giri Sivaraman said the company had "not treated Mr Mathieson with the respect he deserved and failed to financially provide for him after he became seriously ill".
The law firm alleges Mathieson began working for DST Global Solutions in 1993 and that the company had agreed to maintain income protection insurance at 75 per cent of Mathieson's income when he was first employed.
It also alleges that the company had agreed to maintain Total and Permanent Disability insurance of four times Mathieson's salary.
The law firm said that in February 2009 Mathieson was diagnosed with advanced thyroid cancer and had been unable to work since 2010, with his employment being terminated in 2011.
Sivaraman said the law firm would be alleging that DST Global Solutions had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by breaching an agreement to maintain Mathieson's income protection insurance at the agreed level.
"The company has also breached the adverse action provisions of the Fair Work Act because it has treated him unfairly after he declared he was unable to work due to serious illness," he said.
"He has built this company in Australia from zero over an 18-year period and now feels like he has been thrown to the wolves," Sivaraman said.
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