WRU ‘a safer place to work’ after action over ‘toxic’ culture

Nation.Cymru Staff

Britain’s equality regulator has ended its formal agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) after finding it has made sufficient progress in addressing concerns over its workplace culture.

The agreement followed a period of intense scrutiny of the WRU after former employees made allegations of sexism, racism, homophobia and bullying within the organisation in a BBC Wales Investigates episode in January 2023.

Steve Phillips subsequently resigned as WRU chief executive, and an independent review found aspects of the WRU’s workplace culture had been “toxic”, with sexism, racism and homophobia not adequately challenged, as well as evidence of bullying and an over-reliance on non-disclosure agreements.

In November 2024, the EHRC entered into a legally binding agreement with the WRU, which set out the actions the Union needed to take to address the concerns raised and improve protection for employees from discrimination and harassment.

These included mandatory EDI and harassment training, amending corporate workplace policies — particularly a specific sexual harassment policy, the introduction of a standardised discrimination and harassment complaints system, and a review of the use of NDAs.

Having monitored the improvements made by the WRU, the EHRC has now assessed that enough progress has been made to conclude the agreement, saying the WRU is ‘a safer place to work’ after making a series of improvements.

Mary-Ann Stephenson, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “We signed this agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union to tackle a workplace culture which was ‘toxic’ for a significant number of employees, according to an independent review.

“Since then, the WRU have put in the hard yards to make sure the organisation is a safer place to work. There are now better procedures in place to protect staff from harassment and discrimination, and much more effective ways for staff to raise concerns in the first place.

“By law, employers must take reasonable steps to protect their staff from sexual harassment and discrimination. We will not hesitate to act where we see organisations failing to uphold their duties under the Equality Act.”

In order to complete the action plan, the WRU has:

• worked with an external adviser to enhance workplace policies so it is clear how harassment and discrimination should be addressed
• introduced a standardised system to record discrimination and harassment complaints so that trends and risks can be identified
• introduced mandatory sexual harassment training for all managers, with specialist training for managers who are responsible for handling complaints
• updated its sexual harassment risk assessment to cover risks associated with social events and travel, and devised tailored briefing materials to reduce the risk for specific events
• appointed an independent advisory group to provide oversight and expertise on equality and inclusion

‘Proactive measures’

The Welsh Rugby Union’s Chief People Officer, Lydia Stirling, said: “Since the independent review in 2023, and indeed before it reached its conclusions and made its recommendations, we have introduced a series of proactive measures, protocols and guidance to improve our culture and ensure our values are upheld throughout the business.

“We have worked hard to implement each of the recommendations of the independent review and the EHRC agreement and we are hugely grateful to EHRC for their guidance and advice during this time.

“We must now build on the great work that has already been done and continue to meet our own expectations for a positive workplace culture.”

Other actions completed include the development of a Relationships at Work policy and the introduction of specific equality objectives for senior executives.

The WRU has also launched regular staff surveys asking employees about diversity and inclusion issues, with responses monitored to identify and address concerns if they occur.

As the regulator for equality law in Britain, the EHRC has unique powers to take enforcement action against organisations where it thinks they have breached equality law.

These powers are formally set out in the Equality Act 2006. More information is available on the EHRC site here.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.