Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Over the past few months, we've seen rolling scandals of unethical behaviour in the big four consultancies. It's evident the issues are not just confined to PwC; they stem from the big four business model and its voracious pursuit of profit. It's a business model that creates conflicts of interest, obscures transparency and raises questions about public value for money. One of the things that has emerged from shining a light in this sector is the consequences for the people who work there.

The recently released report on EY workplace culture, Independent Review into Workplace Culture at EY Oceania, led by former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, has revealed systemic issues resulting from the damaging consulting business model. That report reveals the unreasonable workloads and long working hours of staff. The report found that 11 per cent of staff routinely work more than 61 hours a week. That is equivalent to working nine hours a day, seven days a week—far beyond the hard-won right of a 38-hour week. Extreme working hours have huge consequences for workers' mental and physical health, not to mention detracting from time spent with family and friends. One worker is quoted as saying:

… all I do is work, I have nothing to offer to my family, my marriage, my house. I got a promotion and a great raise but I have spent all that money and more on psychiatry and psychology and acupuncture just trying to keep going. I'm not actively looking but if I find another job, I will leave because I do feel like I am killing myself doing this.

The price of this oppressive, always-on culture at EY shapes the treatment of employees. Over the previous five years, 15 per cent of staff experienced bullying, 10 per cent experienced sexual harassment and eight per cent experienced racism. Unsurprisingly, the widespread unethical treatment of workers does not affect all equally. Women and minority groups are the most likely to experience less safety and less inclusion at EY. Long hours and low control especially affect those down the employment ladder. Employees in EY attribute the punishing working hours and myriad associated consequences to a business model focused on profit and delivery over people. It's a business model EY shares with the other big consultancies and many other professional services.

The draconian working arrangements revealed in this report not only affect staff at EY; they pervade the sector more broadly. The model of the ideal worker in these firms casts a long shadow. It assumes someone who always puts their job first, someone who is committed to long hours, someone who is always available to be contacted and who prioritises their work over the rest of their life. Because of this, the ideal worker in these firms is almost always a middle-aged man without care responsibilities—someone who can work long hours at the drop of a hat. That precludes many Australian workers from these jobs, particularly women with caring responsibilities or anyone who's looking after someone else some of the time. It locks women out of leadership.

We need a new definition of the ideal worker—someone who can work safe, reasonable hours, someone who's able to balance their obligations with the rest of their life, someone who can be both a leader and a mother. It should not be up to individual workers to stand up to their individual bosses to defend this balance. Instead, we need decent working rights and conditions and decent employment circumstances in companies like the big four. That's why my committee, the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care, which reported to the Senate in March, recommended that a right for all workers to disconnect from work be included in our National Employment Standards. We have to throw out the business model of the big four, and we should penalise firms that create unsafe working conditions.

This report on EY gives us a unique glimpse into what it's really like to work in one of these big firms. The findings are serious and shocking. No Australian business should be run on the stolen hours and health—even lives—of Australian workers. We must address the structural issues inside the consultant sector. Alongside an overhaul of consultancies, we need to reform our workplace relations law to improve working conditions and safeguard a worker's right to disconnect from their job, be healthy, have a life, have a family and keep their mental and physical health.