TVNZ encourages any others to come forward after alleged sexual harassment in 2010

March 4, 2019

A former employee says a manager pinned her against a wall and tried to kiss and grope her at a restaurant in 2010.

TVNZ is encouraging any others to come forward after allegations of sexual harassment at the broadcaster nine years ago. 

Former employee Andi Brotherston says a manager pinned her against a wall and tried to kiss and grope her at a restaurant.

She says it happened in 2010 and that she was laughed at when she raised the matter with a female human resources manager.

Both the man Ms Brotherston says harassed her, and the HR manager, are no longer with TVNZ.

TVNZ says it is saddened to hear about completely unacceptable harassment behaviour at TVNZ back in 2010. 

"We also remain open to hearing from anyone who's had any problems in the past because we think there's still an opportunity to learn from that and where appropriate to apologise for behaviour that was unacceptable," Kevin Kenrick, TVNZ Chief Executive said today.

TVNZ has been in contact with Andi Brotherston about her allegations.

And the broadcaster today emailed staff about its harassment policy.

It has also alerted its shareholding ministers and board.  

TVNZ's full statement issued Sunday 3 March 2019: 

We are saddened to hear about the completely unacceptable harassment behaviour at TVNZ back in 2010. 

It takes courage to step forward and openly talk about experiences like this and we respect Andi for doing so. She has the right to be heard, and we have a responsibility to listen and reflect on what she has to tell us about her time at TVNZ.

This is a matter we take very seriously. We have zero tolerance for any form of harassment in our workplace and we’re committed to providing a working environment that is inclusive and respectful.

The individuals involved no longer work at TVNZ. We will follow up directly with Andi to better understand what happened so we can learn from this and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

If one of our people came to us with something like this today, we’d bring in external expertise to carry out an independent investigation.

We’ve also been asked to comment about the other case that’s mentioned in the Twitter thread. Our understanding is the individuals involved no longer work at TVNZ. We’re open to discussing these things so we can learn from our past – however, until we’ve got more information we’re not in a position to comment.  

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