Country Road Group faces the threat of a staff exodus after the fashion retailer’s boss, Raju Vuppalapati, kept his job following an investigation into the handling of complaints of sexual harassment found more reviews of the company’s workplace misconduct policies are necessary. The retailer’s South African parent, Woolworths Holdings, in March commissioned an external investigation after staff members alleged that complaints of sexual harassment and bullying by a former executive, Rachid Maliki, were not handled properly. In response to the findings, the company said it would implement “a number of actions to strengthen and enhance its complaints-handling process going forward”.
Country Road boss Raju Vuppalapati is the former chief executive of RM Williams, which is now conducting its own internal inquiries. Credit: James Elsby Roy Bagattini, the chief executive of Woolworths Holdings Limited (a separate company from the Australian supermarket giant), on Tuesday flew to Australia to speak with staff and called a meeting at 1pm with one hour’s notice. The meeting was not available online to those working from home.
“I am deeply disappointed that some team members did not feel fully supported when raising complaints about inappropriate behaviour. It is clear that we did not meet our own expectations, let alone those of our employees,” Bagattini said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour in our organisation.