All is not well in Wiggle world. The Wiggles, the long-running Australian children's music band, are being sued by their former CEO Luke O'Neill, The Guardian reports. O'Neill (who is not the Hell World writer and one-time Stereogum Deftones reviewer Luke O'Neil — different spelling) is suing Wiggles Holdings Pty Ltd, as well as Anthony Field (the blue Wiggle, pictured above) and the group's general counsel Matthew Salgo, for alleged financial misconduct.
According to O'Neill, who took over as Wiggles CEO in January of last year, he spent his tenure with the band disputing what he viewed as unnecessary expenditures by Field, such as hiring his nephew Luke Field to work on the Wiggles' Tree Of Wisdom tour and approving air travel costs for a friend of his daughter on "numerous occasions." In O'Neill's lawsuit, he says he took issue with Anthony Field's "determination to implement, without approval and in contrast with the usual employee bonus scheme which was 15% of base salary paid." O'Neill says he complained to Anthony Field and the Wiggles' head of production on multiple occasions and that in February of this year, Field "undermined him" by questioning his competence in a meeting in front of about 13 staff members.
Furthermore, O'Neill says all this alleged wanton spending impacted his own ability to be paid according to his contract. The $86,266 bonus he received this past July following his termination in May is less than he was owed, he says. As for that firing, he says it violated the Fair Work Act because there was no reasonable basis for it following unanimous positive reviews from the Wiggles’ directors. At this point I'd like to end the post with a jokey Wiggles reference, but my kids missed that whole phenomenon.
