Contractor reveals ‘intrusive’ question in employer’s survey

A contractor has revealed the “intrusive” question he was asked when working on a major Sydney project, with Ben Fordham firing up over the “woke” move.

A Sydney tradie has raised concerns after being asked to complete an “intrusive” survey before starting work on a very prominent project currently underway in the city.

Writing to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, the unnamed contractor claimed he was asked to complete a questionnaire before a site induction for the M7-M12 Interchange project, which is being led by construction company, John Holland.

The project is expected to take three years and, once complete, will provide “direct access to commercial and residential hubs, and the new Western Sydney International Airport”.

In his communication to 2GB, the contractor claimed that he was told that failure to complete the questionnaire would exclude him from the site induction and “therefore make you unable to work on that site”.

An illustration of art of the proposed M7-M12 Interchange. Picture: Supplied

One of the questions workers were asked was, “Do you identify as LGBTQI?”.

The tradie didn’t feel comfortable answering this question, telling the radio program that he raised his “concerns and objections to this very intrusive questionnaire” and, as a result, was reportedly “threatened with contract termination if I persisted”.

“In the end, I was made to apologise,” the man claimed.

Other questions reportedly included on the survey were, “Do you identify as a refugee?” and “Is English your first language?”.

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Mr Fordham fired up over the situation, claiming none of the questions mentioned have “any bearing on someone’s ability to build a motorway”, branding it “pointless, politically correct, virtue signalling, crap”.

“In this woke world that is supposed to be so understanding of everyone’s feelings, he was forced to answer personal questions and it was suggested that he was the problem, not the questionnaire wanting to know his sexual preferences.”

Speaking to news.com.au, a John Holland spokesperson revealed the data obtained form the questionnaire is collected a “number of reasons”.

The contractor said he found questions ‘very intrusive’. Picture: iStock

Some of these include “meeting customer targets on employing local people, graduates and apprentices and people who have been out of the workforce for a significant period of time”.

“Like other major employers we also collect data on the diversity of our workforce,” the spokesperson said.

However, the company claims, while they want the data to be as accurate as possible, it is not mandatory for contractors to complete these surveys, a fact the company is now reminding staff of.

“We’ll look into what’s happened, but if the person who was reported on the radio this morning felt uncomfortable or compelled into completing the survey we apologise,” the spokesperson said.

“We have inducted around 5000 people onto this project and we are not aware of anyone who has been refused induction on this basis.”

Originally published as Contractor reveals ‘intrusive’ question in employer’s survey