Female staff at Nine called to join legal action over sexual harassment

Ousted Nine news boss Darren Wick was not given a $1 million golden handshake when he left the broadcaster ahead of multiple female staff members complaining about his behaviour.

Ousted Nine news boss Darren Wick was not given a $1 million golden handshake when he left the broadcaster ahead of multiple female staff members complaining about his behaviour.

Female staffers described the reported payment to the former news and current affairs chief as “a slap in the face” after it was claimed the company didn’t properly respond to his alleged lecherous and “inappropriate behaviour” for years. They have now been called to join a legal action against their employer.

The Daily Telegraph has been told by multiple sources that Mr Wick did not receive a $1 million payment signed off by chief executive Mike Sneesby without the approval of the seven member Nine board.

Instead Mr Wick, a renowned workaholic, received the entitlements from his 26-year career which included more than 60 weeks of accrued annual and long service leave which would have amounted to more than a year’s payment of his “substantial” salary. The sum is still understood to be in excess of $500,000.

Channel 9 CEO Mike Sneesby. Picture: Brendan Read

The failure to address the rumours of the golden handshake payout led to female staff members becoming upset and points to a wider disconnect within the media company that some feel Mr Sneesby needs to urgently address.

On Monday employment lawyer Josh Bornstein from law firm Maurice Blackburn put out a call to women in commercial television to come forward if they have complaints against their employer.

It did not specify a network but said it was “currently assisting a number of women in the commercial television industry to pursue claims of sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination.”

Darren Wick. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

A Nine personality told Sky News that Wick had allegedly been “gropey” after a Logies party on the Gold Coast last year and “had his hands everywhere, breathing heavily in my ear, I had to peel him off me.” Another claimed how he had put his hand up her skirt.

After years of the allegedly poor behaviour going unaddressed one Nine source said yesterday that women at the network were feeling “sad, angry, unsettled and hurt”.

Mr Sneesby left his home in Randwick early yesterday morning to drive his Toyota HiLux ute to Nine’s North Sydney head office knowing the clock is ticking on his bid to repair the fractured business.

He flew home from the United States last week to front the seven member board headed by chairman, former treasurer, Peter Costello and present them with a solution. He was described as “a dead man walking” on the way in but emerged with a plan and the backing of the majority if not all of the board.

Nine will now undergo an external review to look at the “concentration of power” inside the company that had “damaged the trust” in its newsrooms. Mr Sneesby has also initiated a sexual harassment hotline and staff wide training.

The question is whether it will be enough to repair the damage. Nine’s share price rallied from an all time low of $1.40 to $1.44 yesterday – a long way from the highs of $3.07 when Mr Sneesby first settled into the CEO’s leather chair in March 2021.

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