New misconduct review at EY
EY, the “Big Four” accounting firm embroiled in ongoing workplace culture concerns, has launched a new review of misconduct complaints over the past five years as its biggest New Zealand client, Fonterra, bans some EY staff from projects.
In an internal EY email leaked to Stuff, EY Oceania talent leader Lauren Stanton says: “I know that it has been a challenging and confronting month for all of us as we respond to reports of historical misconduct at EY New Zealand.”
The “reports” are Stuff’s revelations that the NZ chairperson of EY, Braden Dickson, had departed the firm in February after an investigation into an historical behavioural matter; that a senior EY employee was promoted despite a complaint of sexual harassment against him; and that Corrections, which had contracted EY to review its sexual harassment processes, was then prompted to ask EY for an explanation.
In the latest fallout for EY, Fonterra has launched an internal investigation after an anonymous complaint.
Fonterra managing director people and culture Kate Daly said the complainant was concerned that “an EY contractor subject to complaints of misconduct may have been present in our premises”.
“The safety and wellbeing of our people is our utmost priority, and we take accusations of misconduct extremely seriously.”
She said the internal investigation had been started to understand more about the concerns raised.
“As part of this, we contacted EY and requested that any contractors subject to past or present investigations into misconduct be removed from Fonterra projects.”
EY is a multinational professional services firm that boasts a vision to “build a better working world”. Fonterra is one of EY Oceania’s top accounts, understood to be worth tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. The Fonterra account was previously led by Braden Dickson for EY.
On Monday evening, Stuff put questions to EY about Fonterra’s request for any contractors subject to past or present misconduct investigations to be removed from projects. Yesterday morning, EY advised staff of its new internal review.
In a statement, EY managing partner Simon O’Connor confirmed the review, and said EY’s partners and clients were also advised of it yesterday.
“EY is supporting Fonterra in relation to its investigation,” he said.
“[EY’s] independent review of historical complaints related to behavioural misconduct will help us to build confidence in our complaints process, to help all our people feel safe at work.
“We continue to encourage anyone at EY, including alumni, to come forward if they have experienced behaviour that does not align with our code or EY values, regardless of whether this is recent or historical.”
The engagement of the external adviser follows an earlier review, previously described by O’Connor as “the most comprehensive review of workplace culture ever undertaken in the New Zealand professional services industry”.
That review, released in July 2023, was undertaken shortly after the sudden death of a staff member at the company’s Sydney office. It showed that almost one in five women aged between 18 and 35 had reported at least one instance of sexual harassment in the past five years.
In response to the latest review, a former staff member told Stuff: “You'd hope that as part of the review, they find out who in the current partner group knew of Braden [Dickson]’s behaviour back at the time that it occurred and who stood by, despite this knowledge, as he was then promoted to chair, the lead partner of their largest client, and built and maintained their troubling culture over the years.”
Another source told Stuff Fonterra’s internal investigation should prompt other major organisations who were significant clients of EY to review their own processes, to ensure the EY staff who consulted to them were safe. “What due diligence have these clients undertaken to ensure that they buy services from an organisation that lives up to their values?”
A former EY complainant said that while she was sceptical of the motives for the review, “best of luck to them. I really hope they move the dial”.