For Nine’s traumatised staff, action is more vital than words

This is a mess for Nine. The workplace review ripped off the scab, but the bleeding remains.

Nine chair Catherine West.

This is a mess for Nine. The workplace review ripped off the scab, but the bleeding remains.

From the outset, the company’s workplace culture review was badly ill-conceived, albeit well-meaning.

The expectation among staff was that the bullies (and worse) within Nine would be weeded out and the company’s newsrooms would become tolerable places to work.

That may still happen, of course, and let’s hope it does.

But after more than 1000 staff, past and present, made submissions to the external company tasked with conducting the review, the widespread feeling among staff after Thursday’s crisis meeting is that Friday looks like it will be more of the same.

The problem hasn’t been fixed.

No one among the higher echelons at Nine is actually aware of which individuals were the subject of complaints. That was the way the review was structured – aggrieved staff were free to name their abusers and their bullies but when the 80-page report landed with a thud on chair Catherine West’s desk on Thursday ­morning, it contained no names.

It was all about worrying workplace themes, and systemic cultural issues with abuse of power, bullying and harassment.

Read excerpts from the report (PDF)

Clearly, due process needed to be followed. The review couldn’t be seen to be an unregulated witch-hunt.

But what now? Will the 1000-plus staff who registered their horror stories – ranging from inappropriate dialogue in the newsroom to serious instances of sexual harassment – now be required to resubmit their “complaints” while still answering to their tormentors?

For traumatised staff – overwhelmingly women – that’s a ­horrifying prospect.

West has committed to change and she expressed genuine sorrow for the misdeeds of her unnamed colleagues.

“We unreservedly apologise. You should not have had to endure this conduct,” West said in an email to all staff on Thursday.

“The reality is that much more needs to be done, and we will be moving immediately and with pace.”

Interim chief executive Matt Stanton also pledged the same, and to his credit answered every question that came his way during an at-times-fiery meeting on the newsroom floor.

The buck now stops with the company’s top brass.

Staff are crying out for accountability from the company’s leaders.

Words are not enough.