Discrimination, harassment and abuse are a threat to health and safety, just like contaminants and unsafe working practices, says FBU vice-president and AGS elect Ben Selby
Being a trade unionist is about knowing whose side you are on. When pay and jobs are cut by the government, we fight for better. When employers undermine health and safety, we run campaigns and enter dispute. When NHS workers, posties or teachers go on strike, we don’t stay neutral – we show up and we back workers on picket lines.
The fight to build and defend unity among our members is just as fundamental to the trade union movement – and as a union we will pick the side of equality and solidarity.
Since the publication of the London Fire Brigade’s Independent Culture Review in November, the working environment in the service has come under scrutiny.
It unearthed reports and allegations of misogyny, racism, homophobia and abuse in our workplaces.
The revelations contained in the review shocked the public. It told of how a black firefighter had had a noose put above his locker, and a Muslim firefighter had a terrorist hotline sign stuck on his.
It recorded how women faced sexual harassment and unsolicited explicit messages and “ran a daily gauntlet of sexual abuse”, according to its author Nazir Afzal OBE when he was interviewed by the BBC.
ROUTINELY BULLIED
It heard from LGBT+ firefighters who said they were routinely bullied in the course of their job.
When File on Four investigated misogyny in the fire service in February this year, it uncovered issues all over the country. One firefighter told of being bullied to the point of suicide by her male colleagues. Another woman talked about how she was told by a colleague that “women will be the downfall of the fire service”, and sexually harassed. Another firefighter said she had fire axes thrown at her on drill, and that her colleagues would soak her with the hose at such high pressure that she got bruises.
The HMICFRS report, published in late March this year, told a similar story.
This situation is appalling, but for some people reading this – not least those who have been on the receiving end of this abuse and mistreatment – it will not come as a surprise.
As a union, the FBU represents complainants all the time, and the story is familiar: bullying, harassment and discrimination have gone unreported or overlooked. Some of those with authority in the workplace have abused their positions and escaped accountability. Complainants have found themselves under investigation or subject to disciplinaries.
Our reps and officials have witnessed first-hand the failure of fire and rescue service employers to properly address these issues. Some Fire Service leaders are part of the problem, and have systematically failed to address discrimination, harassment and bullying in the service.
The values of firefighting should be about looking after each other, helping people, showing solidarity and being a team.
It is the duty of the FBU not just to acknowledge these issues and to challenge them, but to fight to transform the fire and rescue service
For many firefighters that is the reality, it’s understandable that they feel both proud of the work they do and instinctively protective of the reputation of the fire and rescue service.
But it is utterly shameful that for many women, people of black and ethnic minority backgrounds, members of the LGBT+ community, and those with disabilities or neurodivergence, the fire and rescue service is simply not a safe place to be.
There can be no shying away from the reality of this situation. It is an indictment of how little has been done within the fire service, and how little faith complainants have in internal processes, that they have felt compelled to go to the media to tell their story. Hearing those stories is never comfortable, but it is necessary – and I applaud the bravery of the people who have come forward. It gives us an opportunity to fight for something better, and places an obligation on us all to act.
In the FBU, we have developed equality sections for women, LGBT+ and black and ethnic minority members – and these groups will always play a leading role in developing our campaigning around these issues. We have also developed a framework for promoting equalities in our casework – All Different All Equal – and this has meant confronting discrimination and harassment, including in our own ranks.
We are therefore examining our own record as a union, and looking at our own rules and policies and how they are applied.
But there is an urgent need to do more. For some months now, I have been chairing an LFB Culture Review Working Group, which is looking at the recommendations of the London Culture Review and at the broader issue of fire service culture.
DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES
The working group includes the FBU equality sections and representatives of other affected groups. Through it, and through our other democratic structures, we will now begin the work of addressing this issue in earnest. Equalities will be a focus of our annual conference in May, with delegates debating how to drive forward an agenda of transformation in the fire service.
The Inclusive Fire Service Group, set up by the national joint council, has already done some good work and we will look to raise this issue through our collective bargaining process.
Firefighters have the right to work without fear of being mistreated because of their gender identity, ethnicity, sexuality, disability or neurodiversity – or bullied or abused while doing their job. Just as much as fire contaminants and unsafe working practices, this kind of toxic culture is a matter of health and safety in the workplace.
Abuse and discrimination have no place in the fire service or our union. It is the duty of the FBU – from the station and the control room to the top of the union – not just to acknowledge these issues and to challenge them, but to fight to transform the fire and rescue service, and to put affected groups in the driving seat of that process. Winning this fight will mean addressing the failings at the very top of the service.
