ABC’s 7.30 Report has released a scandalous audio recording which allegedly reveals how a female Channel Seven cadet was dismissed from her duties after making a complaint about harassment from an older male colleague.
Amy Taeuber, a 27-year-old cadet journalist at Channel 7 Adelaide, was suspended from work, had her phone taken off her and was escorted off the premises by HR representatives who dismissed her on suspect allegations she herself had bullied a colleague.
ABC reports how Taeuber was “blindsided” in a sudden meeting days after she filed a complaint that a male colleague had made inappropriate comments on her appearance and even called her a lesbian.
In the meeting she was denied a support person (an apparent breach of workplace law), and told she was relieved of her duties for supposedly bullying a colleague, who she says is in fact someone she has a close professional relationship with.
In the audio released on tonight’s 7.30 Report, Taeuber can be heard becoming understandably confused and upset, saying:
I’ve worked so hard to get this job and I know people are just trying to get rid of me now and it’s just really upsetting. I don’t really deserve any of this for standing up and having a problem with someone calling me a lesbian.
The employee who Amy was told made the complaint against her to HR, Peter Fegan, “didn’t even know that his name was on the document” and supposedly had never made any complaint at all.
The report puts Channel 7 in increasingly hot water, with some former HR employees telling ABC this incident is indicative of a widespread, systemic culture that treats female employees horribly and sees work emails trawled through to create misleading, often fake cases against staff.
The full audio can be heard on the ABC website.
