Amy Taeuber case puts Seven’s Human Resources department in the spotlight

ANY female HR manager working in a masculine industry should ensure that no woman is ever unfairly bullied out of her job.

Amy Taeuber in her time at Seven. Picture: Facebook

THE ABC’s decision to take up the banner on behalf of sacked news cadet Amy Taeuber more than a year after this writer first brought news of Taeuber’s unfair dismissal case (August 6, 2016) says as much about the ABC’s new popular news strategy as it does the broadcaster’s commitment to breaking news.

Three months before I sat down with sacked Seven Network PA Amber Harrison to expose her unfair treatment by Seven, the Adelaide-based Taeuber was battling through mediation with Seven after complaining that she had been harassed by a male colleague.

Sacked.... Amber Harrison. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

Taeuber’s disturbing interview with Seven’s HR manager Cherilynne Kemp was the one revelatory moment in the ABC’s story.

Any woman — or man — who has worked in television knows well the function of the HR department.

When first established in the 1990s, these were shaped primarily by the men running the company.

In many testerone-fuelled Australian businesses they were seen as a joke until management realised there might be a purpose for them after all, as their political arm and their grunt in staffing issues.

Ironically women are often appointed to senior HR roles because male executives patronisingly believe women are well placed to manage the “emotional” demands of the job. Also having a woman in the role can lift the female executive headcount. A good look for a company run mostly by men.

Interestingly all four HR managers overseeing the dismissals of Taeuber and Harrison were women. HR manager Kemp and Rachael Green from Seven’s Sydney office both played a part, as did Network GM Davanh Inthachanh and Seven’s group executive of HR, Melanie Allibon, who left Seven in December as the Harrison story broke. Another woman, Katie McGrath, was appointed to Allibon’s role in June.

Women in HR roles are critical to changing ugly workplace cultures and any female HR manager working in a masculine industry has an even greater responsibility to the powerless women they represent. They should ensure that no woman is ever unfairly bullied out of her job, a betrayal of their own sex.

Of course while women are thriving in HR at Seven their numbers seem to be dwindling in the network’s Sydney newsroom.

The departure of four women in recent times — chief-of-staff Lauren Devlin, chief-of-staff Megan Miller, senior producer Melanie Ruiz and producer Naomi Shivaraman — would indicate that despite CEO Tim Worner’s recent push to nurture women, they don’t seem to be feeling the love.