Tuesday, July 05, 2022

PwC partner accused of rating female staff with colleagues at strip club

 

Male PwC partner allegedly rated female staff with colleagues

Edmund Tadros
Edmund TadrosProfessional services editor

PwC has put a partner on leave over allegations that include threatening a former staff member in a phone call and attending male-only events where female personnel were rated on their attractiveness.

PwC has launched an investigation into the partner, calling in law firm Ashurst to handle the inquiry.

PwC is investigating a partner. James Brickwood

The partner allegedly made threats of assault during a phone call to a former staff member and then repeatedly redialled the number after the call ended.

The partner is also accused of attending a strip club with PwC personnel and taking part in a yearly men-only gathering referred to internally as the “Section 5-5” event. During the event, those involved would allegedly rate the top five most attractive females in the firm, according to the complaint.

The alleged phone call took place on the evening of Friday, June 24, while other allegations made against the partner have taken place over the past several years.

“The firm takes these allegations seriously and has appointed external counsel to investigate them. In the interim, while the allegations are under investigation, relevant personnel are on leave from the firm,” a PwC spokesman said.

“Our policies are clear about the standards of behaviour that we require from all our people. The firm encourages our people to raise concerns about the workplace through our ‘Speak Up’ program. The firm will take appropriate steps if the investigation finds that the allegations are substantiated.”

A promise to investigate

The firm’s spokesman said the partner involved did not want to speak to the media. The partner was also contacted directly for comment but did not respond to the requests.

The phone call involved the partner allegedly threatening to come to the former PwC employee’s house and physically assault him. Phone records included in the complaint show that between 7pm and 8pm, the partner also allegedly made twelve unanswered calls to the former PwC employee.

A complaint was made to PwC chief executive Tom Seymour on the night of the alleged phone call. The firm’s head of people and culture, Catherine Walsh, responded shortly afterwards with a promise to investigate.

PwC had earlier made inquiries into the state of the partner’s team, which experienced a high turnover in staff based on results from the firm’s annual staff survey.

However, those inquiries involved interviews with groups of personnel together rather than individually. No staff raised any problems in front of their co-workers.

KPMG fired some staff following “boys’ night out” events in the mid-2010s.

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PwC, along with rival big four consulting firms Deloitte, EY and KPMG began providing data about the level of workplace complaints during the past year.

Deloitte, which reports earlier than the other firms, investigated 145 misconduct allegations during the 2022 financial year and found more than half, or 80, were substantiated, leading to 20 employees being “exited” from the consulting firm.

In FY21, EY conducted 12 formal workplace investigations and fully or partially substantiated six complaints of sexual harassment and bullying, with another six regarded as inconclusive or unsubstantiated. KPMG substantiated 27 complaints of workplace misconduct, while PwC reviewed 13 complaints but did not disclose the outcome of these cases.

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Edmund Tadros leads our coverage of the professional services sector. He is based in our Sydney newsroom. Connect with Edmund on Twitter. Email Edmund at ed.tadros@afr.com
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