Senior Netflix employee ‘shut out’ while on maternity leave
A senior Netflix marketing manager claims she was ‘shut out’ of work at the streaming giant as a court hears more details of her fair work fight against the streaming giant.
A senior Netflix marketing manager has alleged the streaming giant cut her out of a job after restructuring her team while she was on parental leave and says her bosses decided she was not suitable for any new role, despite being qualified.
Vanessa Hughes has also claimed, after an email from Netflix in January reported her role of Australia and New Zealand series and film marketing manager was going to be “eliminated”, she was told she was the only member of her team to be affected by the changes with all of her direct colleagues set to keep their jobs.
Maurice Blackburn principal Mia Pantechis, representing Ms Hughes in the Federal Court case, said her client exercised her “fundamental right to take parental leave, with the expectation that she would remain safe in employment and not be prejudiced”.
“Instead, she has been placed in a vulnerable situation where her position has been made redundant, her colleagues have been given other roles, and she has been shut out of redeployment into jobs that she is suited to and has the experience to perform,” she said.
“Netflix promotes itself as having family friendly policies and a flexible culture. However, in reality Mrs Hughes has been denied the important legal protections she is owed as a mother accessing her right to take parental leave and return to work.
“No woman should face insecurity in employment when they take parental leave, or be subjected to distress and suffering.”
Sydney-based Ms Hughes has worked at the popular streaming platform for two years and 10 months full-time, and has previously worked at Canva, Booking.com and Tourism Australia, according to her LinkedIn profile.
At Netflix, Ms Hughes says her work on the Australian and New Zealand campaign for the global launch of hit television show Stranger Things and Korean thriller Squid Game won the company awards.
Court documents seen by The Weekend Australian allege that between May and September last year, Ms Hughes approached a combination of her manager Tony Broderick and human resources business partner Regina Chonga 12 times to ask for a period of 12 months parental leave.
Ms Hughes alleged before she sent a letter from her lawyers to Netflix reiterating her “complaints and inquiries” in relation to her parental leave requests on September 18, Mr Broderick asked her to “justify her request by reference to her underlying medical condition and to speculate about her workload capacity upon her proposed return to work”.
The documents then state Ms Hughes started parental leave on the same day, September 18, which was a combination which included a period of unpaid leave.
In January, she said she was told via email the Australia and New Zealand team would be restructured and that several roles were going to be eliminated included Ms Hughes’ role.
The email also said new roles would be created but Ms Hughes claimed “Netflix had formed the view that Mrs Hughes was not suitable for any of the new roles created in the restructure”.
She claimed Netflix failed to engage with her requests for information about the restructure, but eventually confirmed “all other employees, and two contractors, within Mrs Hughes’ team were unaffected by the restructure”.
Then in February, Ms Hughes contacted Netflix with information demonstrating her skill set for different positions created out of the restructure, but she was told she would not be appointed to any of the new jobs.
The Weekend Australian has requested a copy of Netflix’s response, filed in court on Friday.
During a brief case management hearing on Friday, the court heard the parties would attend mediation before the matter goes further.
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