Sexual harassment, bullying claims rock the ABC
Almost 100 ABC employees have been sexually harassed at work and a further 186 claim to have been bullied, a staff survey finds.
Almost 100 ABC staff have been sexually harassed at work and a further 186 employees claim to have been bullied, according to a confidential survey of the public broadcaster’s news division, with the shocking results plunging the organisation into a fresh crisis.
The findings of the survey prompted ABC managing director David Anderson to demand “cultural change” within the taxpayer-funded broadcaster, and he warned of serious consequences for those staff who have “behaved in an manner”.
The internal poll, which was conducted by the Australian National University’s Social Research Centre, was carried out in the second half of 2023 and invited anonymous feedback from newsroom staff.
In all, 745 news employees completed the survey, with females making up two-thirds of respondents.
Thirteen per cent of respondents – that is, 97 staff – claimed they had experienced sexual harassment while working in the “ABC news division, at work or in locations associated with work”.
Twenty-five per cent of respondents, which equates to 186 staff, said they had personally experienced bullying at the ABC, “with the most commonly identified behaviours being intimidation and belittling and humiliating comments”, according to the report’s findings.
In an all-staff email sent on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Anderson said the survey results showed the ABC news division has failed to meet its own standards of workplace behaviour, and warned of “consequences for those staff who are found to have behaved in an unacceptable manner, no matter what their role is at the ABC”.
“The report findings show that staff in ABC News have experienced bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace during their employment at the ABC,” Mr Anderson wrote.
“Bullying and … sexual harassment is unacceptable in any workplace.
“If anyone doesn’t understand or accept this, then the ABC is not the working environment for them.”
The ABC’s news director Justin Stevens also emailed his colleagues on Wednesday, telling staff that he “is responsible for championing a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace culture in our offices”.
“I expect us to hold each other to account about the values and standards we expect of each other. In the same way we hold other organisations to account for their culture, we must not hide from scrutinising our own, with a view to striving for a better workplace for all staff,” Mr Stevens said.
Of the survey’s deeply concerning findings, Mr Stevens said: “It should not happen. To those who engage in these behaviours, it is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it. Anyone who engages in such behaviour, or who justifies it in any way, is not welcome at the ABC.”
But Mr Stevens was also keen to emphasise the poll’s positive feedback.
“Most survey respondents said they have positive working relationships at the ABC (92 per cent); enjoy working here (79 per cent); have made good friendships (86 per cent); and are loyal to the ABC brand (81 per cent),” Mr Stevens said.
The warnings from Mr Anderson and Mr Stevens to staff follow a similar “follow the rules or else” editorial edict issued by ABC chair Kim Williams two months ago to the national broadcaster’s journalists.
“If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality don’t work at the ABC,” Mr Williams said.
On Wednesday, Mr Williams said that all ABC staff must be prepared to engage in “open and honest conversations across the organisation about how we improve our workplace culture”.
“Cultural change in any workplace requires the involvement of all of us,” he said.
The ABC boss also announced that the taxpayer-funded organisation had launched a “portal” to allow staff to confidentially report instances of bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace, which will empower management to “monitor areas or any trends of concern”.
Mr Anderson added that the findings of the internal “racism review” at the ABC, which was commissioned more than a year ago, will be made public “in coming months”, with more than 100 current and former staff having been interviewed to date.
The findings of the ABC’s harassment and bullying survey come just a week after media company Nine Entertainment was also forced to address widespread reports of misconduct within its own organisation.
Nine’s chief executive officer Mike Sneesby last week announced an independent review of the “behaviours and concentration of power that has damaged the trust and fairness within our television newsrooms.”
That probe followed harassment allegations levelled against Nine’s former long-serving news boss Darren Wick, first revealed by The Australian on May 21.
More than a dozen women have since come forward to The Australian, on the condition of anonymity, to claim mistreatment by Wick and other male executives at Nine, dating back several years.
On Friday, Mr Sneesby attended a newsroom meeting during which he told staff he understood why some female employees felt they could not speak up about issues in the workplace.
The Nine boss said he was not aware of the cultural issues at the network until a raft of allegations about the toxic culture at the company was laid bare in media reports over the fortnight prior.
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