A routine staff meeting to introduce new appointments at Seven West has been compared to something out of the 1980s, after a group of ‘sexy Santas’ began singing and dancing.
Seven West Media held a meeting at town hall in Perth on Friday where its WA chief executive Maryna Fewster announced Chris Dore as The West Australian’s new editor-in-chief.
Other key announcements included the appointment of Sarah-Jane Tasker as editor and Adrian Lowe as head of the weekend Sunday Times.
The pair are the first female editor and LGBT appointments respectively.
As deputy news director Ray Kuka was announcing what was in the pipeline for the network, including the airing of WA’s Christmas Pageant on December 7, Mariah Carey’s festive anthem All I Want for Christmas began blaring.
Then a group of scantily-clad female dancers dressed in Santa hats and short red dresses made their way to the stage.
A photo shared online of the event drew massive criticism with one commenter likening the dancers to ‘sl*tty elves’, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Female staff who watched on were said to have been ‘dumbstruck and horrified’ by the bizarre scene which come at a time when the network has been in the spotlight for inappropriate behavior.
A Seven West Media meeting on Friday featured a performance from scantily-clad Christmas dancers (pictured)
Seven Network has come under fire for its alleged ‘inappropriate’ workplace culture with the recent dismissal of Robert Ovadia highlighting alleged mistreatment of female staff
‘OMG – if they thought that was even slightly appropriate given everything we’ve found out about them, the cultural makeup of that organisation is badly broken,’ one commenter wrote.
Another added: ‘How is this real!
A third wrote: ‘That will help fix the culture issues which have been uncovered.’
A Seven spokesman told the publication the dancers were part of the Christmas Pageant, which is considered a ‘Perth institution’, but many questioned how the performance was appropriate for a midday meeting.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Seven for further comment.
The controversial meeting comes just weeks after veteran Sydney reporter Robert Ovadia launched legal action in the Federal Court against the network.
Ovadia was stood down on June 21 following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
The performance overshadowed CEO Jeff Howard’s (pictured) announcement of the company first appointment of female and LGBTQ+ editors
Those allegations include lewd messages with a female colleague and sending a photoshopped photos of a female coworker as a ‘pole dancer; in a catsuit, brandishing a whip; sitting in a cocktail glass’ on Four Corners.
Ryan Stokes, the managing director of Seven Group Holdings Ltd, recently called inappropriate behaviour in media an ‘industry-wide problem’.
He made the comments in reference to allegations against Nine Entertainment for the mistreatment of women and the ABC’s review into racism directed at staff.
Stokes said it was ‘disappointing that there is a perception [that] inappropriate behaviour’ was tolerated at Seven because ‘we don’t tolerate any inappropriate behaviour’.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk