The complaints stem from an anonymously-ran Instagram account with the handle @Esteelaundry, which last month began collating and posting employees' accounts of working at the beauty giant. More than 50 accounts of alleged mistreatment from people claiming to be former Mecca employees were posted to the page, detailing experiences of harassment from managers, racism towards staff, and a "toxic" culture of favouritism and nepotism. It was traumatic. That whole Mecca culture, that positive workplace, it's just so fake. A former Mecca employee Current and former employees have backed the anonymous complaints, telling The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald their experiences with the company were vastly different to the positive, fun, and "gloss and glamour" way Mecca presents itself. Mecca is a beauty powerhouse in Australia, owning around 25 per cent of the $2.4 billion top-end cosmetics market, with 100 stores across Australia and New Zealand and over 4000 staff.

Loading In the 2018 calendar year, the company reported revenue of $444.4 million, a 20 per cent increase on the year prior. The business has been named as one of Australia's top workplaces in the Great Place to Work survey six times in the last six years, most recently taking out the fourth spot for companies with more than 1,000 employees. Narita Salima, a former retail worker, initially expected her experience would reflect these accolades, believing her time at the company would be "fun and exciting" after landing a casual job at the retailer in 2016. But, after just a few weeks, the then 22-year-old employee found herself dreading coming to work. She says she was bullied and ridiculed by managers over trivial issues, often on the shop floor in front of customers.

Employees claim they weren't regularly paid for overtime, and at other times paid with leftover test product. "It was traumatic. That whole Mecca culture, that positive workplace, it's just so fake." After working for a month and a half, Ms Salima says she raised concerns with her line manager about the bullying she was experiencing. She was fired from the retailer shortly after. Another former employee who worked in the head office said the environment was "cult-like". She says she was asked to quit simply because she was not "passionate" about her work. "My manager pulled me into her office and said 'I know you're not passionate about your job, I think it's time for you to give me your resignation'," the employee says. "I'd never had any performance issues in the history of my job there. I was shocked."

Another employee claims Mecca workers weren't regularly paid for overtime at the end of their shifts, with the company having a policy of not closing the store's doors until all shoppers had left. This would lead to employees staying back as much as an hour overtime, often unpaid, and at other times paid with leftover test products. Employees say attempts to resolve these issues with HR were futile, with one worker labelling the department "toothless". Others say their time at Mecca significantly affected their mental wellbeing, with one former makeup artist saying the constant "bullying and belittlement" prompted her to visit a psychologist. "I already had anxiety and [Mecca] made it so much worse," she said. 'We will do better'

Following the complaints, Ms Horgan, a former entrepreneur of the year recipient, sent a number of emails to staff recognising and addressing the claims and saying she would take action in both the short and long-term. In these emails, seen by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Horgan says she was surprised to hear of the concerns, claiming just 0.2 per cent of Mecca's retail workforce had made a bullying complaint in the last two years. Jo Horgan, founder of Mecca. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The messages also disputed the claims of unpaid overtime, saying the company's pay policies were regularly reviewed and were "guard rails" to help build the business' culture. The company says staff are paid overtime in line with legislation and all product benefits are in addition to standard pay. Mecca has appointed an external culture specialist to commence a "listening tour" around stores and make recommendations to the company on what it can do better. It has also established a new anonymous workplace complaints hotline.