Union slams CEO’s vicious online post
Workers called ‘slovenly’ and ‘toxic’
A WORKERS union has written a letter of complaint about the treatment of thousands of FSG Australia staff and clients following a vicious online post by the company’s CEO.
The Services Union yesterday said it had written to the Fair Work Commission about the behaviour of FSG management and insufficient information about employment for hundreds of staff.
The complaint was made after FSG CEO Vicki Batten took aim at “toxic”, “slovenly” employees who affect businesses “like a cancer” in a long spray on her LinkedIn account at the weekend.
“The catty gossip. The relentless bully. The slovenly slacker,” the CEO of 22 years wrote. “Toxic employees come in an appalling array of annoying forms. They’re destructive, distracting and draining. Like a cancer sapping the energy of those around them, they cripple their co-workers’ morale, performance and productivity. Worse, they poison your entire business in the process.”
Executive president of The Services Union, Jennifer Thomas hit out at Ms Batten’s comments.
“It’s still hard to believe that Ms Batten can show such disrespect for working people who provide frontline services to the most vulnerable in our communities,” Ms Thomas said.
“Over the last few weeks we have tried in vain to garner information from FSG in relation to what was happening, unfortunately, they were completely unwilling to provide any information to our Union or to employees about what they had in store.”
“This lack of consultation has left employees with not only uncertainty about their working futures but high levels of stress about how they are going to put food on the table and pay their bills.
“We are hoping for a smooth transition to other service providers in the coming weeks.”
Ms Batten did not respond to repeated calls and emails for comment on the post.
On Saturday, the Bulletin reported staff were so afraid to speak publicly about their experiences with the company they were creating fake Facebook accounts to communicate.
In August last year a Royal Commission found FSG failed to properly investigate two reports of sexual abuse on disabled children in its care in 1995 and 2000 and had failed to support the families of the alleged victims.
“During her evidence Ms Batten’s demeanour was at times heated and defensive, particularly in response to questions asked by counsel for (one of the mothers),” the Commissioners found.
“Ms Batten did not accept the possibility that any abuse occurred at Orana (FSG respite centre). She exhibited poor capacity to understand the concerns that (the mother) raised in her evidence … Ms Batten showed an unwillingness to accept that sexual abuse could arise at FSG at all.”