How ‘boys club’ at Sydney Trains puts female workmates at risk of harm

Women working at Sydney Trains have detailed harmful behaviour they have experienced in a male-dominated workplace, telling of the “boys club” and how they have to alter their conduct to “avoid being targeted”.

A confidential report completed early last year contains disturbing personal accounts of the culture at Sydney Trains, detailing how everyday sexism is normalised and sexual harassment is a “significant concern”.

Sydney Trains’ rail operations centre in Alexandria in inner Sydney.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Many women who participated in focus groups for research into the culture told of being sexually harassed by male colleagues.

One said: “There’s definitely comments and jokes that could be perceived as sexual harassment. For example, one of the guys might make a joke or comment that women [enjoy specific sexual acts].”

Another said: “A guy at work commented on my breasts last week.”

Female staff told of their experiences of “sexual assault in the workplace with participants commenting that the organisation’s response created further trauma and harm for them”, the report said.

Sydney Trains said it had not had any formal complaints of sexual assault matters following the report, while direct actions were taken with staff to allow them to report matters including via an anonymous hotline.

Women comprise less than a quarter of Sydney Train’s 11,170-strong workforce.Credit: Steven Siewert

The report also details women’s negative experiences of reporting harmful and potentially unlawful conduct. One said: “If you raised an issue about sexism or sexual harassment, you’d get ‘you are demonising this person for no reason’.”

Many expressed a reluctance to report sexual harassment and sexist conduct because they feared negative consequences if matters were escalated.

The report by Somali Cerise Consulting was commissioned by Sydney Trains to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of gender inequality and exclusion in the workplace. It was also prompted after a “range of concerns” were raised from within the rail operations division.

The gender equality expert carried out focus groups on an anonymous basis with women and men across all parts of rail operations, including support staff. Women make up less than a quarter of Sydney Trains’ 11,170-strong workforce, according to its annual report.

Somali Cerise Consulting’s report also details women’s concerns that their skills and capabilities are often undervalued, and they are excluded, some of which was due to structural flaws such as the lack of a maternity uniform or enough lockers for women.

Many women interviewed spoke of the “boys club” at Sydney Trains. One said: “It’s very much schoolboy behaviour. There’s gossip and rumour-spreading about women.”

Another said: “It’s so common that jobs have been preselected to go to someone’s mate. It’s the boys club benefit. Boys chat and say, ‘yep I’ll get you in because you’re my mate’.”

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

While some women were positive about the workplace, an overwhelming majority confirmed they had experienced or observed everyday sexism, sex-based harassment and sex discrimination.

One said: “We get and hear these comments all the time: ‘You only got the job because you’re a woman’.”

Another said: “If one of the women is getting married, there’s always ‘are you going to lose weight before you get married?’”

The report noted that many of the comments made by men at work could amount to unlawful conduct under the Sex Discrimination Act.

Many women felt like they needed to change themselves to be taken seriously and to manage the risk of men targeting them.

Most men who were part of the focus groups remarked that they had not observed sexist behaviour, which the report said suggested it was normalised or invisible to them. One male employee said: “Women want to be at home more with their kids, not doing shift work.”

Despite men saying they had not seen sexist behaviour, some said they would not recommend a job at the rail operations division to female family members because of the experience they would encounter.

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said the report was a wake-up call for leaders in the rail operations division “that we’ve got to do better”.

Longland said he had been “crystal clear” with staff that any discriminatory behaviour was unacceptable, and issues that were reported were investigated.

“We’ve been very active in terms of leading a cultural change across Transport, resetting expectations around a positive duty in the workplace,” he said on Friday.

Following the report’s findings last year, Longland sent an internal memo to staff warning that the normalisation of everyday sexism and discrimination would not be tolerated, and Sydney Trains had “serious issues to address”.

Overarching agency Transport for NSW said all individual issues raised by the findings were actioned through appropriate channels and staff involved were supported.

“[These] findings, which were shared with staff in July 2024, outlined several recommendations – all of which were taken seriously and have since been actioned,” it said.

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