PwC reveals 11 cases of bullying, six relating to sexual harassment and four case of data breaches

The professional services major has revealed 68 per cent of total allegations were substantiated but its local chief executive says the transparency ‘does drive results’.

Nine people have left PwC in the last year as a result of 31 bullying, sexual harassment and other misconduct complaints – up from 13 reports the previous year.

Releasing its financial results for the year to June 30 on Tuesday, the professional services firm revealed that 68 per cent, or 21 cases, were substantiated: 11 cases of bullying, six relating to sexual harassment and four relating to data breaches.

Of staffers who have been let go, it has been previously reported that two were involved in an allegedly racist incident at a trivia night for staff, and three were alleged to have “rated” female staff on their attractiveness.

PwC chief executive Tom Seymour would not comment further on the other exits but said they were for sexual harassment or bullying.

The firm’s second transparency report – which details efforts taken by the firm to improve its response to complaints and its broader culture – will be released on Friday.

Mr Seymour said expectations of acceptable workplace culture had increased greatly in recent years. “And that’s a good thing. Our organisation and indeed our profession … I think we would be one of the safest, most progressive industries in terms of our people feeling they belong,” he said.

Much more time was now spent on these cultural issues, he said, but “we get a dividend … if you create an environment where people feel they belong and are included, they’re happy, they’re safe, then you will get a better outcome and it will deliver better results”.

“Transparency can be uncomfortable and it can be costly and it can be time consuming, but it does drive results.”

Mr Seymour confirmed the firm is backing the proposal for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, saying: “We have the responsibility of a business to have a point of view just like any Australian. This is about giving Indigenous Australians a better say, to empower them, to enable accountability and you cannot have accountability without empowerment. We’ve tried lots of other things over 200 years and we sit here today where the lives of Indigenous Australians lag my life in terms of pretty much every aspect. In an innovative nation, we should try something different.”

As part of its efforts to build culture and retain staff, PwC spent $15m on a staff development program called The Outside for more than 2700 senior associates and managers, held over five weeks in May in the Hunter Valley.

It also launched the Together Anywhere policy which permits people to work for up to four weeks remotely in Australia or overseas. On Tuesday it also announced that more than 3400 people last year accessed special pandemic leave of up to five days for vaccination and recovery from Covid-19 infection.