Ms O’Neill was approached by the former AMP employee following media coverage of allegations made against former AMP Capital CEO Boe Pahari and aired the claims before Parliament.
“As a junior female employee I endured consistent and systematic harassment at AMP from men at the peer level to executive level,” the woman’s statement reads. “After speaking up, I was bullied, victimised and ultimately silenced.”
The woman said her time at AMP had “destroyed (her) life” and that the perpetrators – including those who had covered it up – had “gone on to thrive”.
“In one instance the perpetrator was given a warning and allowed to remain,” the statement reads. “He also harassed another colleague, who left the industry as a result of this and sustained sexual harassment by two managers. The other, my manager, was repeatedly promoted.”
The woman said she was sent “sexually explicit photos and emails expressing a desire to have sex with me” and was the target of constant public propositioning – including in front of some of AMP’s largest clients – and severe physical harassment, including being groped by a senior colleague. The woman also said her direct manager had also threatened to end her career if she did not follow his “sexual wishes” while on a work trip, but that she had escaped due to the man’s drunkenness.
The woman sought internal resolution, during which she claims she was “systematically broken down, isolated and bullied”, and was given a new job with substantially less responsibility than her previous client-facing role, reporting to the same “handsy leader who had run the investigation”. She ultimately left AMP.
More to come.
