Weekly round-up: The link between pornography and joblessness and claims of toxic work culture at Harvey Norman and Parliament

In this week’s round-up of HR news: pornography and video games are being blamed for the surge in jobless men, Harvey Norman is knee-deep in an employment scandal that involves suicide, and toxic working environment claims have been reported inside Parliament.

British MP claims porn and video games are to blame for jobless men

According to The Telegraph, Britain’s work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, has claimed that pornography and video games should be getting the brunt of the blame for the number of jobless men in the UK.

The work and pensions secretary said easy access to online pornography and video games was fuelling a mental health crisis among young men, which was prompting many to drop out of the workforce.

It came as official figures showed there were 900,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 who were not in education, employment or training in January to March 2024. This was up from 812,000 a year earlier.

Stride said social media and technology had led to a “very worrying” increase in mental health conditions among young people, which was fuelling economic inactivity. The politician said technology was having a different impact on boys’ and girls’ mental health.

“I do think probably as a society we haven’t explored and fully opened up exactly what this technology means for young people’s mental health because I think the impacts are actually very profound and probably an area where there needs to be more research,” Stride said.

Britain is, in fact, grappling with one of the worst sickness crises on record, with more than 2.8 million people of working age not in the workforce due to ill health, including mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. This is up from around 2 million before COVID-19.

Stride may be leaping to untraditional conclusions with this take; however, he did unveil a series of reforms to tackle Britain’s worklessness crisis, including an overhaul of Britain’s benefits system, warning that the approach to mental health and welfare is in danger of having “gone too far.”

Toxic working environment, suicide, and proprietor contracts

According to Channel News, Harvey Norman is facing serious legal challenge regarding its employment practices and overall franchise model, which has gained attention due to the allegations of unjust dismissal, a toxic work environment, and the suicide of a former proprietor.

The issue is set to be played out in a New Zealand court, according to a former proprietor and Australian franchisee who is one of several behind a move to challenge their current business model.

One of the proprietors claimed he was given just minutes to vacate the Harvey Norman store and was prevented from communicating with his management team after he complained to a Harvey Norman NZ country manager about what is now being described as a “toxic work environment”.

The attention around the alleged business model was raised after a former proprietor was sacked after 16 years with the company back in November 2023, and another committed suicide.

Harvey Norman has weird and complex contracts for proprietors who operate as consultants, and they are contracted by separate companies to manage Harvey Norman departments. Because of this, Harvey Norman contended that the employment contracts signed by the proprietors with their respective consulting companies absolve Harvey Norman of any statutory employer/employee obligations to the proprietors managing their stores.

According to senior Harvey Norman management, they have the right to remove proprietors from their stores immediately if they are not happy with them, and that includes complaining about the company’s workplace culture.

Another former Harvey Norman proprietor, Quinten Carpenter, who also previously experienced ongoing issues with senior management, was asked to move stores. Carpenter sadly committed suicide after disclosing to colleagues that he felt “regret, despair, and was at a loss as to how to proceed with the Harvey Norman management team”. The incident happened in 2021.

Overall efforts to mediate the dispute have failed, leading to the possibility of a representative action involving past and present proprietors, suppliers, and business partners. Harvey Norman’s chief operating officer declined to comment due to ongoing legal proceedings.

Parliament boss sprayed over toxic work environment

According to The Canberra Times, there have been allegations of a widespread toxic workplace culture inside the heart of Australian democracy.

The department responsible for supporting operations at Parliament House and the work of federal politicians has been accused of fomenting a culture of silence and cover-ups among staff, a report from the ABC revealed. However, the specific department has brushed it off as “unsubstantiated”.

The Department of Parliamentary Services employs thousands of people who work with other departments to provide library, information, visitor, retail, food and other services in Canberra.

While department secretary Robert Stefanic agreed that Parliament House should be a safe workplace for all, he dismissed all the allegations.

“From time to time, people make unsubstantiated claims about things. No actual evidence has been provided as to what those issues are apart from hearsay,” Stefanic said.

“It’s easy for people to throw around words like toxic without any substantiation as to what the nature of this toxicity is – what this concern is.”

Stefanic said the department’s anonymous staff census had shown an upward trajectory on all measures in relation to staff engagement since 2016.

“That is not reflective of an agency that has a toxic culture. I’ve given my heart and soul into reforming and transforming the department,” he said.

Following the Brittany Higgins case, the spotlight has been on the workplace culture within Parliament. In fact, in November 2021, the government released a report into parliamentary workplaces, which found the Department of Parliamentary Services was “particularly driven by fear”.

Following the ABC’s report, it was stated that staff believe that not much has changed in those three years since the report occurred.