Ms O’Neill was approached by the former AMP employee following media coverage of allegations made against former AMP Capital CEO Boe Pahari and aired the claims before Parliament.
“As a junior female employee I endured consistent and systematic harassment at AMP from men at the peer level to executive level,” the woman’s statement reads. “After speaking up, I was bullied, victimised and ultimately silenced.”
The woman said her time at AMP had “destroyed (her) life” and that the perpetrators – including those who had covered it up – had “gone on to thrive”.
“In one instance the perpetrator was given a warning and allowed to remain,” the woman said. “He also harassed another colleague, who left the industry as a result of this and sustained sexual harassment by two managers. The other, my manager, was repeatedly promoted.”
The woman said she was sent “sexually explicit photos and emails expressing a desire to have sex with me” and was the target of constant public propositioning – including in front of some of AMP’s largest clients – and severe physical harassment, including being groped by a senior colleague. The woman also said her direct manager had also threatened to end her career if she did not follow his “sexual wishes” while on a work trip, but that she had escaped due to the man’s drunkenness.
The complainant sought internal resolution, during which she claims she was “systematically broken down, isolated and bullied”, and was given a new job with substantially less responsibility than her previous client-facing role, reporting to the same “handsy leader who had run the investigation”. The woman ultimately left AMP.
More to come.
AMP is a toxic hate cult. This company only seems to exist as a haven for psychopaths that are ejected from other companies.
This saddens me beyond belief, but having worked at AMP previously I can believe it. They are a morally corrupt company. I was bullied by multiple male managers and there, as were several of my friends. Escalations go absolutely nowhere. I hope there is a parliamentary enquiry into this disgrace of a company.
Has it escaped anyone’s attention that AMP, an institution that Australia, an I moved loved, has shown itself to be a despicable organisation?
From their treatment of planners, and to their staff.
The Rott starts from the top and the leadership of AMP is a revolving door.
They have taken millions from their customers and the planner who built their business.
De Ferrari should take his severance and ride off into the sunset, he leads a despicable organisation.
Staff – yes. Advisers – yes, but only recently. What about the customers?
De Ferrari surely cannot survive this and there is not a reason in hell that the level of remuneration paid for this position can be justified considering the state of the company, the public humiliation and brand damage and the share price.
On top of this, the attitude of AMP toward it’s own advisers regarding BOLR is corporate theft and appears to be reflective of some of those at or toward the top of AMP regarding other issues.
This is just my personal opinion
I’m not a real supporter of the Swiss Italian guy’s recent decisions but I must admit that I don’t think these historical sexual abuse claims are his fault. I think that ethically that he was not responsible for what happened prior to his appointment – If De Ferrari was the guy that promoted the person in the UK and was aware of the allegations then maybe i’d change my mind on this, but I don’t know at what point whether it’s valid that a CEO starts at an organisation in crisis if he goes to his underlings, please tell me about all the sexual harassment claims that you have had since 19XX – if that’s what has to be done.
I am sure that he would understand accountability and he was Murray’s pick. I don’t think that Superman himself could fix AMP.
De Ferrari did crap the bed on BOLR and basically forcing out a lot of people, making their businesses worthless, losing their homes and changing the terms of a contract but I think that the decision to do that was because BOLR is a timebomb.
The issue is that AMP set it off on their advisers instead of taking the hit themselves.
The timebomb was always going to go off, it was just how it was set off, whether it was controlled or uncontrolled. This was a controlled detonation which was dropped over the unsuspecting adviser class.
Now I don’t know about you guys but I don’t really see why AMP needed to be saved from the BOLR timebomb, it should have paid out to the advisers and let them shut down. That would have been the best for clients and advisers. It’s just prolonging the endgame where investors get wiped out and it goes to $0
Have the AMP bigwigs passed their exam/unit of study into the Code of Ethics?
Yes, all of them have.
passing of an ethics exam doesn’t necessarily make you ethical… you actually need to be able to apply your ethics and moral values in the real world.
This is disgraceful and very upsetting. There is so much of this in Financial Services and it just gets ignored, not only by male managers but female managers as well. I recall in the years from 2007-2012 being at a Big 4 and having money put on my desk saying to go buy some face cream so I could look better, being told that as a female I was nothing but a useless knob jockey just holding a spot for gender diversity, I was called the office bitch for not taking up the offer to sleep with a boss. All this from a manager and those in an equal roles to me. So Anonymous you are way off with $ chasers, if there are dollars to be chased, it is because there are no doubt thousands of women, like the victim in this story, and myself out there, that absolutely would have legitimate cause for compensation if they so desired to go through the legal process. Thank goodness there are some great organisations out there and decent managers who walk their talk, and guys like this give their fellow male Financial Planners and management a bad name.
is this because they ***ked everyone?
10 AMP bottles standing on a wall….9 Amp Bottles left standing on the wall….
AMP got really comfortable with its own filth. No wonder it’s been falling apart for the past few years.
This type of harassment was and still is systemic in the financial services industry. As typically a ‘boys club’ in the executive and management level, this behavior and mentality is common place. I remember walking into my first state level meeting as the only woman in a group of about 25 men and the comment was “who did she sleep with to get here?” And that was in 2010 not 1975! I also agree with the article stating that the policies in place to address these issues, are not worth the paper they are written on. Until the male managers stop protecting their mates, and take the safety and well being of ALL of their employees seriously, this will never go away. There is always two sides to any story, but when you see, hear and are a victim of this behavior it is enough evidence to see that these issues are across most institutions, not just AMP.
I’ve been the industry since 1995 as a grad. I’ve never been sexually harassed (eg groped, propositioned etc) but also had constant comments like ‘who did I sleep with’ as the reason I have been successful. I’ve also been denied bonuses plus promotions by older senior male execs. One time a older male acknowledged that despite my performance far exceeding all my male peers, I wasn’t to get a bonus as ‘I had a husband who had a good job, and if I got a bonus I’d be depriving a family man to provide for his family’. Thanks NF for that. I tried to escalate further up the chain but was basically told by complaining that my career there was done. I moved on from that role pretty quickly. #metoo in advice is long overdue.
This sound so authentic.
Sad if true, though by same token, think a lot more will come chasing the $$ after the first one was successful.
The complaint was lodged well prior to this week. I have no idea about the circumstances but if she was found to be the victim and demoted with him being promoted, as detailed in the information put forward, its hard to spin as being reasonable. I would recommend my daughter not work for AMP.
Anon if you’ve been in the industry anything longer than say 10+ years you’d have observed this conduct. It was systemic for upper management men to be like this with junior subordinate women. Grateful though to the many amazing men I’ve come across in the last decade though who do not engage in/condone/turn a blind eye to this behaviour. If the $ are paid its because the incident happened. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be believed and for action to be taken when you’re a woman and have been harassed or mistreated? 99.9% of the time you get shut down and ostracised for making a complaint. You are told to harden up/get a sense of humour/get on with it. Speaking from personal experience here.
I invite all victims to speak out for justice.
Yup! This sounds pretty right
bullying and stand over goes on in the financial services sector – includes male CEO’s bullying advisers in their AFSL network….not just male to female – but male to male
Don’t forget Female to Male bullying. I can recount a long list of Managers with personality disorders in that category. Any and all bullying needs to be addressed. It’s not just the blokes.
What about female to female?
Absolutely disgusting. At least all the press on Boe means that Alex Wade is not in the news with his DP’s being sent to female colleagues. The CEO needs to go and a wide broom needs to go through the whole of AMP.
Ah AMP. Another Man’s Problem
Like I said previously, start the heads rolling from the top if AMP is serious about changing culture
Starting with the bloke who promoted Boe and employed his good mate Alex Wade.