_{Now to get the right shade of green ink.}

Slater and Gordon in Australia has been thrown into chaos this week after an email was sent to all its 900+ staff attaching a spreadsheet of salaries and bonuses, and also making scathing remarks about the firm and its management. 

The email was sent from a private Gmail address using the name of the outgoing Chief People Officer, Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen. 

However, the actual author is a mystery as Matthyssen has strongly denied sending an explosive parting shot. In a statement issued by her lawyers she said, “Since Friday morning, I have been wrongfully accused of sending a highly inappropriate email to Slater + Gordon staff and publicly vilified since that time."

"The manner in which this matter has been handled over the past four days has caused immeasurable damage and distress to me personally and professionally, as well as to my family," Matthyssen said. 

"I did not send the email. A cursory examination of the email and its attachment gave a clear indication as to the likely identity of the sender. I have engaged lawyers and I am in the process of taking legal action.”

The email, titled 'CPO handover', appeared to address to an incoming person set to take the head HR role. It attached a spreadsheet with salaries at the firm which ranged from a Melbourne legal assistant's salary - stated as being $22,916, to chief executive Dina Tutungi’s - purported to be $690,000 - according to a report. 

An ex-Slater employee told The Australian there were “several people on the same level” who were “earning considerably less than colleagues” and “the leaking of salary information is going to have serious consequences come pay negotiation and bonus time”.

The firm has resisted confirming whether the stated salaries in the email spreadsheet are accurate. "The information attached to the email, while unreliable, should never have been shared," Tutungi reportedly said, adding, "the malicious email that was sent to our employees on Friday by someone impersonating a staff member was an invasion of privacy and I apologise to everyone affected by it".

The email also launched into a blistering attack against the firm, claiming "the situation at Slater and Gordon is a textbook case of dysfunction". It slammed Allegro Funds, the private equity firm which bought a majority stake in Slaters in 2023, claiming that it was "gutting the place".

"Heads are rolling, and what remains is a skeletal crew barely keeping things together," the green ink missive continued, opining that the firm was a "polished-up shell" which would be "sold off at the right price."

The email also made various negative comments about senior staff members, including Tutungi, and described some staff as "useless" or "lazy." (If you want to see further details about what was said about staff you can probably find it using Google and save RollOnFriday from getting sued into oblivion.)

"The contents of the email include a range of disparaging remarks about individuals – what is presented as internal information in the email is incorrect and in many ways a work of fiction," said a Slater and Gordon spokesperson in a statement.

'We are taking this seriously due to the distress this has caused many of our team and are investigating the matter. We will also cooperate fully with any police action or investigation.'