Wild at West: Nine staff ‘misled, betrayed’

Senior staff in Nine’s broadcast division say they feel ‘betrayed’ by the outcome of the review into the network’s workplace culture.

Nine chair Catherine West.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Senior staff in Nine’s broadcast division say they feel “betrayed” by the outcome of the review into the network’s workplace culture, amid claims that members of the company’s leadership team misled employees when assuring them that names of “serious offenders” would be presented to the board.

One Nine insider claimed company chairwoman Catherine West had “exhorted” staff to participate in the cultural review on the promise that the identities of repeat perpetrators would be made known to the board – regardless of the fact that names of the accused would not be published in the final report.

But on Thursday staff were told that Intersection, the consultancy firm that conducted the review, had not provided the names of any alleged perpetrators of inappropriate conduct to the Nine board, thus making it unlikely that any disciplinary action will be taken against those accused of harassment and bullying.

The Intersection report revealed that Nine was beset with systemic and problematic cultural issues, with numerous complaints of abuse of power and authority, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment.

“Staff were told by people that while names of alleged offenders wouldn’t be mentioned in the publicly available report, they would be provided to the board, and therefore we were hopeful that this would lead to change,” one Nine insider told The Weekend Australian.

“That didn’t happen, as we now know. And people in here are pissed off. We were betrayed and completely misled. There were 122 people across Nine who made complaints to Intersection. They told extremely painful stories and I know that many of them found the retelling of their experiences to be quite traumatic. In many cases there were tears.

“And now we learn that the Nine board remains in the dark about the identities of these repeat offenders. How on earth will anything change? I would say the buck stops with West.”

Another Nine source agreed that much of the anger among Nine staff was directed at Ms West, who has been on the company’s board for eight years and head of the People and Remuneration committee for the vast majority of that time. “She’s trying to position herself as the person who is trying to fix all of this but it all happened under her watch.”

Another Nine insider told The Weekend Australian Ms West “exhorted” staff to participate in the review.

“I was so angry to read in the report that everyone who spoke to Intersection did so on the understanding that the purpose was to make things better for the future.

“Of course, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But that was not the tenor of the interviews.

“There was never, ever a delineation made between complaining about a person versus complaining about the institution itself.

“A lot of people came forward not to talk about the culture but to talk about their perpetrators and their enablers.

“Personally, a lot of colleagues called me to say they found the Intersection interviews so therapeutic, and felt relieved that ‘finally something will be done’.

“After the release of the report, they’re gutted. Absolutely traumatised.”

One senior newsroom journalist said in the wake of the review’s failure to address the behaviour of repeat offenders, the culture of fear within the company would remain.

“We know if we put our names to anything we will be a target. Nine has always operated that way. You make a complaint to HR, you are on the radar. And once you are on the radar there is only one way to go and that is out the door.

“People still do not trust Nine. Everyone is happy that to some extent this (evidence of inappropriate workplace conduct) is out there, but there is still no trust in the complaints process at Nine.”

Intersection did not respond to messages from The Weekend Australian. The Weekend Australian also contacted Ms West on Friday and asked whether she would attempt to identify alleged offenders who were the subject of several complaints to the review and whether any disciplinary action would be taken against anyone as a result of the report.

Ms West was also asked if she encouraged staff to participate in the Intersection review. She declined to comment.

In May The Australian revealed that Nine’s former news boss Darren Wick had departed the company two months before, after a complaint of inappropriate conduct was lodged against him by a female staff member.

Many other women – past and present employees – subsequently came forward with separate allegations of bullying, misogyny, harassment and inappropriate behaviour at the network.

The company’s former chief executive, Mike Sneesby, commissioned Intersection to conduct an independent review into misconduct at the network following the revelation of the allegations against Wick.