The dust had barely settled on Boe Pahari’s demotion when Labor senator Deborah O’Neill used parliamentary privilege to air allegations of sexual harassment brought to her by a former junior female employee of AMP.
The woman said that she endured constant sexual harassment from men “at the peer level to executive level”, including in front of some of AMP’s largest clients, and that her direct manager had threatened to end her career if she did not follow his “sexual wishes” while on a work trip. The woman escaped the situation.
“The behaviour and conduct described in Senator O’Neill’s speech [are] distressing and unacceptable to AMP,” an AMP spokesperson told Investor Daily.
“AMP takes any complaint or issue raised seriously, including from employees who have now left the organisation… We are in contact with Senator O’Neill’s office, and would welcome an opportunity to meet or engage with the former employee referred to by the [senator] to offer our support to her.”
The spokesperson added that complaints can be sent in anonymously through its whistleblowing service or through the company’s People & Culture process. But the woman’s statement calls into question how AMP handles internal matters, saying that a manager “well known for his uninvited canvassing of younger female employees” stepped into handle the investigation into her complaints and that the process left her “systematically broken down, isolated and bullied”.
After two months of proceedings “she was a shadow of her former self”. No reparations were made to the woman, while the men involved “have gone on to thrive”, and she ultimately left the company after signing an NDA and being demoted from her client-facing position.
“At AMP, the gatekeepers have until now continued to enable a system where women and the most vulnerable, as I once was, are abused,” the woman said.
“This sends a clear message not only to the good people at AMP but to our broader communities about what is acceptable. For past, present and future victims, what hope do we have?”
The unnamed woman’s allegations are another blow to Francesco De Ferrari’s cultural turnaround of the 170-year-old financial services giant. While the woman does not name any high-profile figures, her claim that she was harassed by men at the executive level – as well as a string of peers and middle managers – indicates a systemic problem, rather than one isolated to AMP high-flyers like Mr Pahari.
Senator O’Neill’s office has confirmed to Investor Daily that a number of women from across the financial services have now come forward with similar complaints, some of which involve AMP.
“This cannot continue,” Senator O’Neill said. “Australia is better than this. Come on corporate Australia, surely you can destroy this cultural stain on our nation.”
