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Mr Pahari’s remark that a refusal by Ms Szlakowski to take up his offer of using his credit card to buy new clothes would be akin to saying he had a “limp dick” was deemed to be moderate harassment. And his comment that he wished he had met her three to five years earlier was considered"minor"harassment.
Mr Burns advised that Mr Pahari’s insistence that Ms Szlakowski leave work colleagues at dinner to join him at exclusive London private club Loulou’s did not constitute harassment,but it was inappropriate for a senior executive to make such a request,he found.
“For these reasons I find that there was poor judgment exercised by BP[Mr Pahari] during this evening and one moderate and two minor incidents,which overall added up to a relatively modest breach of the AMP Workplace Behaviour and Equal Opportunity Policy,” Mr Burns wrote.
“However this involved a senior manager who ought to have been observing a high standard of equality and diversity practice and who ought to have a much better understanding of how his actions might be perceived by and may affect a junior colleague.”
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Mr Pahari was punished with a 25 per cent reduction in his annual bonus in 2017. Ms Szlakowski later left the business.
When it came under criticism earlier this year over news that Mr Pahari had been promoted to chief executive of AMP Capital,the company sought to play down his conduct as merely poor choice of language or bad judgment.
When her full statement was released this month,the company responded that many of Ms Szlakowski's allegations had not been substantiated by Mr Burns'inquiry. However,the summary findings report by Mr Burns lists nine key allegations made by Ms Szlakowski and confirms he was satisfied her account of events was true and accurate.
The company’s position,and that of senior figures such as Mr Murray,Mr Fraser and Mr Pahari,came under serious challenge after Ms Szlakowski went public inThe Age andThe Sydney MorningHerald, objecting to AMP’s attempts to downplay the seriousness of the allegations.
Mr Bornstein said the findings document failed to consider the extended course of unwelcome sexual conduct by Mr Pahari in favour of isolating separate instances,which robbed them of their context. It then reached conclusions about them without apparent reference to the behaviour of Mr Pahari both before and after the events,he said.
He said he also found it"simply bizarre"that the findings document did not include the term"sexual harassment".
“The inconsistencies and deficiencies reflected in the findings document,together with the company’s disingenuous spin raise many questions about what has transpired,” Mr Bornstein said.
"Those questions can only be answered by AMP coming clean and providing all of the documents that we have requested."
Ms Szlakowski last week said the board resignations and Mr Pahari’s stepping aside as CEO were welcome developments. But she too maintains AMP should release to her lawyers all relevant documents regarding her complaint and the investigation. But she maintains that AMP should publicly release the full text of her complaint and the findings of the investigation.
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The Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald can reveal that in late 2014,NSW Police conducted a lengthy investigation into an alleged sexual assault on another female AMP Capital employee by a colleague (not Mr Pahari).
In a statement,NSW Police said:"On Thursday 11 December 2014,officers attached to Kings Cross Police Area Command received reports that a woman had been sexually assaulted at an apartment in Potts Point in the early hours of the morning.
“Following exhaustive inquiries,the investigation was suspended,and the parties were informed that no further police action would be taken.”
The female employee who made the complaint was placed on sick leave and later left the company. The male remained in his job for some time but is no longer at AMP.
AMP sources aware of the alleged incident said external lawyers were brought in to remind employees of the company’s policies around work functions and after parties. An AMP spokesman said the company had no comment on the 2014 incident.
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