Nine Publishing House Committee statement: this rotten culture needs to end

The national house committee of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday is angered and saddened – but not surprised – by the findings of Nine’s cultural review.

Almost half of Nine Publishing employees surveyed experienced or witnessed an abuse of power or authority in their workplace. Forty-three per cent had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment. And one-in-five had experienced sexual harassment.

The figures were far worse in the Broadcast division of the business, where 62 per cent had experienced or witnessed abuse of power or authority, 57 per cent had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment, and 30 per cent had experienced sexual harassment.

This rotten culture needs to end. Unionised employees stand ready to hold management accountable.

The findings of this review also show why there has been a long-running push by Publishing staff for management to take strong and immediate action to improve staff diversity at every level, including annual audits of gender and ethnic diversity, and the pay gaps and differences in grading and employment types experienced by diverse staff. These efforts need to go beyond lip service.

Thursday’s review called for a diversity and inclusion strategy with measurable outcomes, and progress to be reported to the board and shared with staff annually. We note that MEAA members at Nine Publishing called for, and won, diversity reporting as part of our recent enterprise bargaining process. We were initially met with much resistance on this issue. Employees should not have to go on strike to secure greater diversity commitments or fair and merit-based pay and conditions.

Recommendation 15 also called for an independent “equity review” of employment conditions, entitlements and remuneration for Broadcast staff. The best way for employees to advance their conditions and root out discrepancies is to unionise and negotiate an EBA.

To our colleagues at Nine Television and Radio, our message is simple: it’s time to join the MEAA.

The National House Committee
Nine Publishing