IOOF reveals sexual harassment complaints

In answers to questions on notice from the House of Representatives standing committee on economics, IOOF has admitted it received the sexual harassment complaints, which took place in Queensland and South Australia.

The matters were both investigated internally by human resources, the company stated, with formal warnings given – but no remedies or settlement amounts applied to either cases.

No further details were provided. ifa has contacted IOOF for comment, but is yet to receive a response.

The parliamentary committee has asked major financial institutions for details around sexual harassment complaints in its ongoing inquiry on the sector, after Julia Szlakowski, the former employee who made a past sexual harassment claim against AMP Capital chief executive Boe Pahari, came forward with her story.

Shareholder scrutiny then led to Mr Pahari being demoted to his previous job, as well as the exits of AMP chair David Murray and AMP Capital chair John Fraser.

Labor senator Deborah O’Neill also used her parliamentary privilege to air another former AMP employee’s story of sexual harassment while working at the organisation.

On Friday, CBA CEO Matt Comyn told the House of Representatives economics committee there were no allegations of sexual harassment or non-disclosure agreements at the bank that he was aware of.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott answered similarly, saying he didn’t know of any non-disclosure agreements that the bank may have in place but took the question on notice.

Media reported in 2018 that a former senior trader from ANZ’s New York office launched a lawsuit against the bank and its then head of corporate sales in America, Ravi Nursey.

Mr Elliott took to Twitter to publicly apologise for ANZ’s lawyers then grilling the former employee on her sexual history and the time she was raped in university.

“I apologise. This is wrong and not acceptable,” the ANZ boss wrote at the time.

“We were not aware of our external NY lawyers' strategy and should have been. We have instructed them that this is not to be used during trial and I will apologise to the complainant personally.”

Further media accounts from 2017 reported ANZ sacked an offshore banker for sexual harassment.

Speaking to the House committee on Friday, Mr Elliott commented that the media coverage of such events is always a “learning opportunity”, saying policies around governance and whistle-blowing were set to be discussed at the bank’s next board meeting.

CBA deputy CEO David Cohen noted the AMP scandal had presented an opportunity for the bank to re-examine its whistleblower process.

“Recent events have given us the opportunity to make sure that the efforts that we’ve made in the past … particularly around encouraging people to speak up, and particularly around creating an atmosphere in the organisation where people feel safe to speak up,” Mr Cohen said.

“It’s certainly increased our focus around that and we think that’s one of the most important elements in order to unearth inappropriate behaviour is to actually [have] people feeling safe about speaking up and not only feeling safe, but having means to speak up. And when they do speak up, they have that issue dealt with in an appropriate way, particularly where confidentiality can be absolutely paramount.”

Mr Comyn had also said there was “zero tolerance” for the behaviour at CBA, with regular training for leaders and the organisation about how to identify options if they’d like to report misconduct and formal channels to make complaints including a hotline.

Colonial First State also told the committee in response to questions on notice that there had been no sexual harassment complaints at its company in the last five years.

Mercer Australia was also asked the question, but responded in its capacity as a registrable superannuation entity for the Mercer Super Trust, stating it has a fully outsourced model and, as such, has no employees.