MediaWorks staff 'frustrated' by delay over harassment and culture review findings
Monday, 2 August 2021
Current and former staff of news and radio company MediaWorks are frustrated by a delay in hearing the results of a 20-week review of the company's culture, an employee says.
In an email to staff on Sunday, chief executive Cam Wallace said the MediaWorks board of directors had asked for “more time to process the findings and recommendations” from the report, conducted by QC Maria Dew.
Staff were expecting to be briefed on Monday but the meeting has now been moved to Wednesday August 4.
Wallace blamed difficulties with time zones for overseas-based board members for the delay. A staff member at a MediaWorks-owned radio station told Stuff there was “a lot of frustration around the office about this”.
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The wide-ranging review was sparked by allegations of harassment against MediaWorks radio staff aired on social media in mid-March. After questions from Stuff on March 12, a MediaWorks spokesperson announced “a thorough review of historic events and our current workplace culture and practices”.
A week later, MediaWorks appointed Queen's Counsel Maria Dew to lead the review. Stuff understands the months-long investigation included interviews with current and former staff, and covered concerns dating back to 2018.
MediaWorks declined to comment on Friday when asked how many staff had participated in the review. A spokesperson told Stuff the company had committed to sharing the executive summary publicly and would be “in touch next week about that”.
Announcing the review in March, Wallace promised a thorough examination of past and current workplace culture and practices. Wallace said MediaWorks would share observations and recommendations from the review.
In the same week Dew was appointed, MediaWorks stood down two radio employees while it conducted an internal investigation into harassment allegations against them. One of them, a high profile on-air personality, has not returned to work and all mention of him was removed from the MediaWorks website and promotional material at the time.
The internal investigation process subsequently cleared the other worker, who returned to his job.
Former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis called for MediaWorks to take a “transparent approach” to the review’s results.
“The fact that the chief executive, Cam Wallace, is relatively new to the position and came from outside the radio industry (Air New Zealand) suggests to me that he is likely to deal with the review in a more open manner than we may have seen in the past,” Ellis told Stuff.
He said that although publication of names would be problematic for legal reasons, that should not prevent the company from making public the general findings.
“High profile media companies that hold others to account need to be seen to be treating themselves in like fashion. What happens next is as important as the review itself,” Ellis said.
“MediaWorks would do well to have a plan of action that it can share with the public.”
A spokeswoman for MediaWorks said the company shared its “reasons for the short delay” with staff.
“We received the report late on Friday and are working with digesting the findings along with board members, some of which are based offshore in different timezones.”