"Lots of NDAs": Channel Nine could face class action
Channel Nine could face a class action over allegations of bullying, sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct, according to one of Australia's leading employment lawyers Josh Bornstein.
Bornstein told news.com.au that a class action might be an option for men and women who were the victims of a "hostile workplace".
“There is a provision of the Sex Discrimination Act that is relatively recent and was introduced as a result of the Respect At Work changes,” he said.
“It is a new provision that says that it’s a breach of the Act for an employer to maintain a workplace that is hostile for women.
“So in light of the report, which indicates widespread bullying, sexism, punishment, sexual harassment, and favouritism of male reporters over female reporters getting access to stories, there is at least the basis on which to start considering whether a class action could be brought.”
Bornstein is the principal lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, a law firm that has won more than $4.3 billion in settlements for clients since their inception in 1998.
“If the report is right, it’s systemic, which means many women have been impacted, and they’ve been subjected to an environment that’s hostile to them because of their gender, and if they’ve been harmed by that, a class action could give them some form of redress," he added.
However, one of the complications would be the nondisclosure agreements some of the women may have signed before leaving the companies.
“I’m aware there’s lots of NDA, particularly at Nine, and lots of releases as well.
“A class action just requires a sufficiently large enough group of affected people who come together to lodge a case that says, ‘This is the sort of workplace environment we’ve been subjected to’.
“They have to show that they’ve been subjected to the sorts of behaviours that are dealt with in the report and that or that adverse conduct was based on their gender, and then if they were able to show that the law had been breached, then compensation would be based on individual harm.”
He added that in his opinion, while it might be better "for women to band together to pursue a collective case" it may be a bit more difficult as "there’s a fear that if you take on commercial networks, that’s the end of your career," which he said is a "well founded" fear.
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