New findings from ABC News survey reveal bullying, sexual harassment at work: reports
Employees of ABC News have been warned of consequences for unacceptable behaviour after a new survey found that a portion of employees there experienced bullying and sexual harassment, according to reports.
David Anderson, ABC managing director, said harassment and bullying are "unacceptable in any workplace."
"If anyone doesn't understand or accept this, then the ABC is not the working environment for them," Anderson said as quoted by ABC. "There will be consequences for those staff who are found to have behaved in an unacceptable manner, no matter what their role is at the ABC."
Sexual harassment at ABC
Anderson's remarks came after a new survey among 745 employees at ABC News revealed 13% have experienced sexual harassment at work in the past two years.
According to ABC News, female-identifying staff made up 90% of those who reported having personally experienced sexual harassment.
Less than a quarter of employees who experienced it said they reported the incident, while those who reported did it informally, the report said.
The most cited harassers were men, the findings revealed, while most of the harassment took place in the work area or office.
Bullying at ABC News
Meanwhile, the report also found that 29% of ABC News workforce experienced bullying in the past two years.
Female-identifying staff were twice as likely to be bullied than other colleagues, according to the report, which further found that almost 30% of them don't feel safe in the workplace.
When it comes to reporting, 65% of those who experienced bullying it said they didn't report it. Another 26% made an informal report, while the rest lodged a formal report.
Anderson said there would need to be "difficult and confronting conversations" within the firm after the findings.
To address the issue, ABC has established a new reporting system where employees can anonymously report bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, or racism.
The organisation said it has also adopted either partially or in full the 10 recommendations made in the report.
