‘Bending the rules’, staff scared of speaking out among Crown’s ‘pretty grim’ culture problems

A litany of deep problems within Crown’s workplace culture include ‘bending the rules’ and staff scared to speak out, a royal commission has heard.

From employees right up to the chief executive, feedback given to an auditor about the workplace culture at Crown Resorts has painted a “pretty grim picture”, the royal commission in Victoria has heard.

Deloitte risk advisory partner Victoria Whitaker told the probe on Wednesday about preliminary findings from an as-yet incomplete review of the casino giant, detailing a litany of serious concerns about the business drawn from employee surveys and meetings with human resources manager Alicia Gleeson and former chief Ken Barton.

She heard about a “disjointed culture” whereby the Perth and Melbourne venues at the centre of the company’s explosive money laundering scandal operated in “silos”, an example being there was no group head of HR until Monday this week.

Before the huge leadership overhaul that followed the damning findings from last year’s NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority inquiry, there had been pressure to meet financial targets and employee engagement had “fallen away”, Ms Whitaker said.

The inquiry is assessing whether Crown should keep its Melbourne gaming licence, while a separate royal commission in Perth is doing the same. Picture: David Crosling / NCA NewsWire

Among Mr Barton’s many deep concerns was regulatory compliance taking a back seat to making money from lucrative junket tours by high-roller VIP gamblers from Asia.

Ms Whitaker was asked to elaborate on her notes from a meeting with Mr Barton, which stated he had indicated “there may be times when team members find it hard to say no to customers where maybe they haven't broken the law but maybe it doesn’t fit within community expectations”.

“There was a concern that people within the organisation may be bending, may be bending expectations, I suppose, in relation to customer service, his concern being that perhaps they haven’t specifically broken the law but maybe the social licence that exists for the organisation ... may be impinged upon,” she replied.

Commissioner Ray Finkelstein then jumped in, asking, “Did you mean to say, Ms Whitaker, bending the rules ... and held yourself back from saying that?”

“I was thinking the internal rules as opposed to the law ... maybe it didn’t fit with societal expectations,” she replied.

Crown was left without a gaming licence for its new Barangaroo casino after the damning ILGA probe. Picture: Nikki Short / NCA NewsWire

Ms Whitaker also said staff were feeling “quite battered” from the past year, given the ILGA probe and Covid-19 shutdowns, and there had been concerns around “psychological safety”.

“It’s both the fear of speaking up .... as a result of ILGA and other matters, in addition to the fear of safety of holding one’s job,” she said.

Mr Barton, who resigned in February, told her staff had been “scared” to speak up about problems within the business “and there may be a complacency that nothing is done if you raise an issue”.

Towards the end of Ms Whitaker’s testimony, counsel assisting Penny Neskovcin summarised other concerns raised by Mr Barton and Ms Gleeson, including “permafrost” in middle management, whereby information from the board didn’t filter down to employees, and staff not being held to account.

“All of those comments, I suggest to you, paint a pretty grim picture of how Crown’s culture is perceived by senior individuals within the organisation – would you agree with that?” Ms Neskovcin asked.

“What you’ve just listed does paint a pretty grim picture, yes,” Ms Whitaker said.

Reclusive billionaire James Packer is Crown’s biggest shareholder and has previously indicated he will follow the board’s advice about takeover offers, with Star Entertainment’s the only one left on the table after Blackstone’s bid was rejected.

She said cultural change took a long time to shift but that was starting to happen, largely due to the “changing of the guard”.

When pressed by Mr Finkelstein, Ms Whitaker agreed “simply changing the top will only get you part of the way” and there was nothing simple about turning around a deeply ingrained, bad culture permeating an organisation where the pursuit of profit trumped everything else.

“If people are willing to do the right thing, I think you can accelerate the change,” she said.

The inquiry is assessing whether Crown should keep its Melbourne gaming licence, while a separate royal commission in Perth is doing the same.

The twin probes follow the ILGA inquiry concluding Crown had facilitated money laundering by groups with known links to organised crime at those venues and was therefore unfit to hold a licence for its new $2bn Barangaroo casino in Sydney.

Originally published as ‘Bending the rules’, staff scared of speaking out among Crown’s ‘pretty grim’ culture problems