Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry into MFS finds ‘boys club’ culture

SA’s Metropolitan Fire Service is a change-resistant boys club favouring “30 years of age, super fit males” where women face backlash for speaking out, an Equal Opportunity report finds.

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South Australia’s Metropolitan Fire Service has been described as a “boys club” where many firefighters are resistant to change and those who speak up experience backlash.

A report by the Equal Opportunity Commission, released today, has urged changes to boost the ranks of women and people from diverse cultural backgrounds and crackdown on disrespectful behaviour.

Among 1140 MFS staff just 32 are women, or 2.8 per cent.

MFS chief officer Michael Morgan said there was a target to increase that to 5 per cent by 2021, but this would not be achieved by changing entry requirements or physical testing or introducing quotas.

Instead, recruitment would be tailored to attract a wider range of candidates and internal changes would counter the “boys club” culture which favoured the “30 years of age, super fit male”.

The MFS asked Equal Opportunity Commissioner Niki Vincent in early 2017 to examine its workforce.

Dr Vincent’s team spoke with male and female staff, some of whom raised concerns about discrimination and harassment of women firefighters.

A firefighter battles a blaze at Richmond in 2017. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

“This is something as an organisation we should be ashamed of and will do anything we can to prevent,” Mr Morgan said.

However, he revealed that when the MFS undertook accreditation through White Ribbon Australia to change attitudes that foster violence against women there was “some backlash to our female firefighters”.

“When the discussion gets brought up around quotas or changing the way our recruitment process should run there is backlash,” he said.

The MFS is in the final stages of developing a new behaviour management policy which Mr Morgan said would “absolutely” be used to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour.

Dr Vincent’s report quoted MFS staff who said there was currently “no simple disciplinary process” and managers “haven’t had any training so they just ignore it”.

Staff also raised concerns about a lack of racial diversity and pressure on all firefighters to fit the “strong man” stereotype.

Mr Morgan conceded the MFS was “95 per cent white Anglo-Saxon males (and) that’s not a reflection of the community”.

He said this could prevent some people from “even considering being firefighters” because they did not believe they would be accepted.

In December 2016, Dr Vincent’s office conducted an examination of the SA Police force which found a culture of sexism and predatory behaviour by senior staff, and unearthed reports of sexual harassment and assault.