Class action brewing against Seven over underpayment allegations
A class action is being assembled against Seven
A class action featuring numerous current and former employees is being prepared against the Seven Network, alleging underpayment and other issues with the network’s employment practices.
The class action is being mustered by Adero Law, and relates to potential underpayments, unpaid breaks and overtime, as well as the misclassification of some roles, stretching back to October 2019.
According to Adero, the issues have been raised by journalists, producers, camera operators, and production crew, who “have been unable to resolve their concerns internally with Seven.”
Adero Law has issued a public call to former employees wishing to take part in the class action, and said it will be “obtaining employee records from Seven, including actual recorded hours of work and taking instructions from clients to verify whether the supplied records are accurate and complete”, a process it estimates will take between 40 and 60 days.
A Seven spokesperson told Mumbrella: “Seven West Media is confident it is paying its news and current affairs employees appropriately and in line with the enterprise agreement and legislative obligations.”
This follows a wave of bad press for network in 2024, including a Four Corners investigation which showed a toxic workplace culture; the revelation it filed suppression orders against a former Spotlight journalist; and court statements that claimed the network paid for drugs, sex workers, and a year’s rent to secure an interview with Bruce Lehrmann.
Jeff Howard, Seven’s CEO
During Seven’s 2025 upfront, held in October 2024, CEO Jeff Howard pledged Seven would do better.
“Let me reassure everyone that we recognise the critical importance of every brand’s reputation and need for absolute safety,” Howard said.
“And that all our clients and partners have a choice. We’ve taken specific action to address our… shortcomings. We’ve made some fundamental changes to our teams and the ways we work.
“Unfortunately there are some historic matters that are still playing out and we will manage those appropriately. We hold ourselves to account and we expect our peers to do the same.”
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