Boe Pahari, CEO of AMP Capital for a brief period and current Global Head and Managing Partner, is expected to be departing AMP Capital shortly with a golden handshake in the vicinity of $50m. This is despite the fact that in 2020, Mr Pahari was involved in a workplace sexual harassment scandal that resulted in assets under management falling $6 billion over the last 12 months due to investor redemptions as people scrambled to move away from the scandal plagued company. Whilst the entitlement to the payment might be contractual and disconnected to his conduct – that is cold comfort for people damaged by his bad behaviour.
And why is it that bad behaviour does not lead to bad consequences for some?
Compare and contrast this to the treatment that former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate received, for example. As a consequence of gifting 4 Executives with Cartier watches valued at a total of $20 000 for securing a lucrative deal, Prime Minister Scott Morrison coined the gifts as “disgraceful” in Parliament. Ms Holgate lost her job (despite the government insisting that she quit of her own volition) and has faced severe reputational damage since the horde of incensed men led by the Prime Minister hog-piled on the Anti-Christine movement.
There’s a long history of this differential treatment.
Junior publicist, Kristy Fraser-Kirk, sued David Jones for $37m due to the sexual harassment she endured at the hands of the then CEO, Mark McInnes. Ms Fraser-Kirk received $850 00 in the end (much of which went to her legal bills) and Mr McInnes resigned, complete with a golden handshake rumoured to be at least $2m. Ms Fraser-Kirk was labelled a ‘gold digger’ and Mr McInnes an ‘inveterate flirt who had simply misread the signals’. Ms Fraser-Kirk resorted to leaving Australia to get away from the stigma, and Mr McInnes was employed as head of Solomon Lew’s Premier Retail and Executive Director of Premier Investments up until January this year when he stepped down for personal reasons.
Cadet reporter, Amy Taeuber, and her freelance sister Sophie were BOTH sacked by Channel 7 after Amy lodged a complaint of harassment against a senior male reporter. A few days after lodging her complaint, Amy was summoned to a meeting with HR and escorted from the building, told she was being suspended. The male reporter remained safely employed.
Amber Harrison, Executive Assistant, was terminated for misconduct when Seven West Media learned of a consensual affair between Ms Harrison and [married] CEO, Tim Worner. She left her position in 2014 and was bound to not speak publicly about the company or the relationship. Ms Harrison became involved in a messy court battle with the broadcaster after she publicly disclosed details of the affair in 2016, and eventually walked away and agreed to a fixed gag order. Worner remained in his position for a further 3 years.
Just last year, an independent investigation commissioned by the High Court found that former Justice Dyson Heydon sexually harassed a minimum of 6 former associates. Despite this, Justice Heydon retains his Order of Australia.
And most recently, Christian Porter continues to hold his position as a high-ranking public servant, despite persistent and wide-ranging claims in relation to his behaviour with both female Liberal staffers recently and earlier in his career.
I’m sure you can see the pattern.
If you are a senior male, in a position of power and/or profit generation then bad behaviour doesn’t always lead to a bad outcome. In a country where Aboriginal people are incarcerated for minor offences, how can public and private sector leaders in Australia not see the unjustifiable inequity of this situation?
There’s a lot of talk now about ending the harassment and mistreatment of women at work and in the community. When it comes to the workplace – we have no hope of any change as long as bad behaviour continues to be tolerated, minimised, and even rewarded. Good Leaver/Bad Leaver clauses in bonus schemes have been widely used for a long time – so why do we not see them transparently apply to corporate benefits and recognition? If business is serious about making a change and improving the treatment of people in the workplace then they need to hold up the mirror and take a good hard honest look at the structural and behavioural disincentives to creating true culture change.
If you want to teach a child to stop doing something naughty you don’t give them more treats. So why are we still giving $50m bonuses to harassers and allowing bullies and corporate rule-breakers to retain their positions of seniority and power?
Oh, unless you’re Christine Holgate of course…
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