The video from the radio company’s analytical program Four Corners is only the most recent report to detail years of alleged abuse Sony employees have experienced while working for Handlin, which is in line with earlier writing from outlets like The Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald. Handlin was fired in June, month after Sony opened an exploration into Australia’s work culture. Following the inspection, four additional Sony directors were also given leave of absence.
In the lead up to the documentary, Four Corners spoke with more than 100 current and former Sony Australia employees, including several former executive managers who left the company because of Handlin’s reported behavior.
Before his resignation, Handlin was widely regarded as the most powerful professional in the American music business, known for his ability to promote information. In the workplace, but, he fostered a culture of fear, as many reports show, where abuse, intimate misconduct and discrimination were frequent. In one instance, the software discovered a picture of Handlin rapping about the company’s competitiveness while dressed as Hitler.
Additionally, Four Corners found seven instances where pregnant women were fired and given money settlements over a six-year time prior to 2013. Matthew McQuade, a former Sony administrator, reported to Four Corners of an instance in which Handlin made intimate remarks about a new sexual employee. In the late 1970s, Cathie Hannan, a workaholic for Handlin, claimed that Handlin demanded that she step down after refusing to display her chests as part of a music development.
In addition, the new report also states that Sony Music’s business group in the United States in the 1990s received numerous complaints about Handlin from Sony Australia, which the Guardian initially reported in June. Greg Lockhart, Sony Australia’s brain of people resources at the time, worked closely with Handlin and for centuries and played a role in cleaning up following Handlin’s reported crimes. He claimed to Four Corners that he had reported Handlin numerous times throughout the 1990s, but the business did n’t take any action until 1998. By then, Lockhart, along with former Sony Australia banking mind Alan Terrey and two other professionals, were asked to submit a review to Sony corporate, detailing work issues such as Handlin being “abusive daily”, along with his “frequent jealous rages of screaming and bullying” and his ability to” treat women as equals”.
Handlin was immediately suspended, and Sony flew 10 American professionals to its New York commercial company for interviews as part of the company’s internal research. But three months later, Sony reinstated Handlin, and his power went untouched for another 23 years. According to the report, nine of the ten executives interviewed for the company are planning to leave over the coming years.
Since the initial investigation in the Nineties, the company has undergone numerous top executive shifts, and Sony claims that its current leadership has n’t received any complaints about the situation until this year. We take all allegations of bullying, harassment, and other inappropriate behavior seriously and conduct an extensive investigation,” Sony Music Entertainment said in a statement. ” Only recently did claims surface and we are examining them expeditiously. Given that the parties involved at the time are no longer employed by the company, we are unable to comment further on allegations involving events that occurred more than 20 years ago. Sony Music has been reviewing these issues as far as these have been raised.
Beneath the Glass Ceiling, a nonprofit organization, is at the center of the reporting that is influencing Australia’s ongoing reckoning. The organization has provided anonymity to victims of the Australian music industry’s sexual harassment and abusive workplace environments for more than a year, and it has also assisted in connecting those interested with journalists, legal counsel, support groups, and other sources. The group is growing quickly with nearly 15, 000 instagram followers, and the page is expanding its scope. The page announced last week that it was expanding internationally and is asking for anyone from the world music industry to begin sharing their stories.
While the Australian music industry has conducted ongoing investigations into workplace abuse and sexual misconduct, the industry has largely avoided the scrutiny that the wider entertainment sector has experienced in relation to long-standing issues of workplace abuse and sexual misconduct. However, advocates are trying to change that. In the U.S., Dorothy Carvello, who wrote in her book Anything For a Hit about her own experience of sexual harassment while serving as Atlantic’s first female A&, R representative, told Billboard last week that she wants to become an activist shareholder and demand accountability from major music companies. She hopes that a proposal to terminate any non-disclosure agreements the companies may have with current or former employees or clients as an activist shareholder with stakes in UMG, Sony, and WMG.