“It is one of the most degrading, soul-crushing places you can work,” Babb said.

Babb said she was paid so little that she and other colleagues were often “one or two paychecks from homelessness”.

One former journalist, who was not named due to an ongoing legal case against Seven, said she ended up in hospital due to her treatment by Seven, which included being forced to hand over her story to a male reporter on 23 separate occasions, and working significant hours.

Bornstein, who is also acting for the former journalist, told the ABC there had been a noticeable pattern of hostility towards women at the network.

Seven’s new chief executive, Jeff Howard, pre-emptively apologised to staff on Friday in advance of the episode’s airing.

In an all-staff email, Howard said he expected the episode would largely relate to historical matters, some of which had already been “well ventilated”.

The ABC investigation follows a historical clear-out of senior talent and executives at the Kerry Stokes-controlled media group, and airs two days before Seven’s full-year financial results, with its share price sitting at a near four-year low.

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The program also covered some already established poor behaviour at the network, including the well-documented culture at news and current affairs show 7News Spotlight.

Howard’s note to staff on Friday said it was unfortunate that a few employees took up an offer to participate in the ABC’s investigation.

“If any of the issues they call out weren’t appropriately addressed, that disappoints me; we should have done better – and for that I’m sorry to those affected. Once we have seen the full story, we’ll provide everyone with some additional context if needed for clients/partners etc,” Howard wrote.

“Once this is behind us, I want us all to focus on how we move forward.”

In a six-month period of executive overhaul at the media company, Howard replaced James Warburton as chief executive in April. Alongside Warburton, commercial director Bruce McWilliam also left.

Three more members of the executive leadership team were made redundant in June as part of a culling of about 150 staff: company veteran and chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette, chief marketer Melissa Hopkins, and Lewis Martin, the head of sport and Seven Melbourne’s managing director.

News and current affairs boss Craig McPherson departed the network after revelations about members of the Spotlight team’s efforts to secure an interview with alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann were made public.

Anthony De Ceglie, formerly The West Australian editor-in-chief, has since taken on responsibility for Seven’s news and current affairs output, and reshuffled almost all the senior producers reporting to him.

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