Nine star and news boss sue company in wake of culture review
By Calum Jaspan
Nine Entertainment is facing two separate legal challenges from current and former employees as it continues to contend with the fallout of its highly publicised culture review.
Senior Nine News reporter Airlie Walsh is suing the network in the Federal Court, filing a Human Rights sexual discrimination case last week, the same week Nine’s former Queensland News boss lodged a complaint with the Fair Work Commission less than a month after she was sacked.
Nine is facing legal action over the sacking of its top Queensland news executive.Credit: Joe Armao
Walsh has been with the network for 16 years, previously as a producer on the Today program, however, she is currently on maternity leave.
Her legal case has become public just days after Nine’s recently sacked Queensland news boss Amanda Paterson alleged the media company unfairly used the anonymous findings of its cultural report to terminate her.
Paterson has complained to the Fair Work Commission that she was unlawfully sacked in November after 31 years at the network. Her lawyer, John Laxon, said the timing and circumstances of the sacking had given the impression his client had been fired as a result of the review, but Nine’s reasons were unrelated to this.
“They time the terminations to coincide with the release of a report so as to leave the smear and the inference somehow the termination has something to do with the report when it does not in any way,” Laxon told this masthead, which is owned by Nine.
Airlie Walsh has been an on-screen presence at Nine for over a decade.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“It just leaves a horrible taint that she’s a victim of the Intersection report, and she’s not.”
Paterson was sacked by Nine’s new director of news and current affairs, Fiona Dear, early last month. While her exit came within a month of the review, no direct links to the report were made.
Instead, the Fair Work complaint says Paterson was told there were three alleged workplace breaches that amounted to serious misconduct, including the failure to complete training modules, the handling of a contract extension of one of her direct reports, and an inappropriate remark made at a ratings party about Nine getting “rid of all the dickheads”, according to her lawyers.
“It’s the lamest excuse to terminate a senior manager I’ve ever seen, and it doesn’t come within a bull’s roar of serious misconduct,” Laxon said.
Nine is aware of the complaint and has chosen not to comment, a spokesperson told this masthead, and the matter is scheduled for mediation initially. Nine and Walsh’s lawyers at Maurice Blackburn also declined to comment on the separate case.
Laxon has represented several high-profile media figures and executives who have left commercial networks this year, including Seven’s Robert Ovadia and former Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn.
Nine and Dear are listed as respondents to Paterson’s claim, this masthead was told.
Dear gave no explanation for Paterson’s departure in an email to staff. She was one of the first major exits after the publication of the workplace culture review in October, sparked by the departure of Dear’s predecessor, Darren Wick, earlier this year.
Wick was subject to historical complaints relating to his drunken lecherous behaviour towards colleagues.
The extensive report from independent firm Intersection, while not featuring any names, revealed a culture of widespread bullying, abuses of power and sexual harassment across the 4000-person company, with a particular focus on the broadcast division.
Nine was subsequently criticised by staff for anonymising the report and initially for failing to take action to remove perceived bad actors. The company later said it was investigating a number of separate complaints made by staff in conjunction with the report.
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