A damning report has exposed the “toxic culture” within the London Fire Brigade – with pornographic videos, urine-stained helmets and racist bullying among abusive staff members. have to endure.
The independent review concluded that organization is “institutional misogynist and racist” with cruelty often called “joke”.
sexism
Some examples include women being groped during training exercises and facing sexist abuse on a daily basis – with many often referred to as “woman” or “underside” by colleagues. “.
Reports suggest other women were even punched and assaulted.
It also deals with cases of men watching porn in a fire station.
“Any close examination of some of the fire stations reveals a movie-watching culture, where men sometimes gather around screens to watch porn, which dates back to the last century,” it said.
The review also revealed that women urinated on their uniforms and men kept diaries when they suspected women were menstruating and told them they “didn’t want to be around women who were bleeding.” “.
Some men have made it clear that they don’t want women to follow and there are many accounts of women being subjected to unwanted sexual interest.
“This includes men showing them pornographic videos and betting on who will sleep with them on the clock.
“One woman spoke of suffering receiving video calls from a man exposing his penis and saying ‘you want this,'” the report said.
The review team also learned that in the past 5 years, there were 10 cases where officials were disciplined for sexual harassment, but there was no case of dismissal.
One female firefighter told the assessment team that the threshold for bullying was too high “you would have to gouge someone’s eye out to get fired” and that “everything else is considered a joke”.
She added that she tells her female friends not to let male firefighters into their homes to check smoke alarms because they rummage through women’s drawers for underwear and sex toys.
“Then they’ll spend hours bragging about the dildos they find and they’ll treat the women as prostitutes.
“We listen to it all the time and I’m sick of it. You don’t have to hear this all the time in any workplace,” she said.
London Fire Brigade is ‘institutional and racist misogynist’, an independent review has found
racist
Racist bullying was a key feature of the report, in which the group addressed religious incidents of people being mocked, while others wore helmets filled with urine.
The report found that black, Asian and minority workers largely felt they had to work twice as hard to be heard and seen.
A black firefighter said he was subjected to racist bullying while on the job, culminating in someone putting a fake noose in his locker.
The review team also heard about a Muslim firefighter who was regularly bullied while on duty because of his faith.
His colleagues speak to him with an Indian accent and frequently ask him about his “miracle mat,” as well as make racist remarks like “let’s train on threes.” your lot, it’s not difficult, all you have to do is pull the rope” when he was sent to the trainings.
The report added that his colleagues asked how his Al Qaeda training was when he returned from the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
His colleagues also put a piece of bacon on his bread, and when he switched to another shift, he said the abuse continued and the colleagues stuffed pork sausage in it. his bag while he was washing the dishes.
“After repeated complaints that were denied, he began to suffer from depression and anxiety, then collapsed at work and was hospitalized.
“He has been diagnosed with PTSD and has confessed to suicidal thoughts,” the report said.
The review says the example shows the impact of common cruelty is continuing to go unchecked in some stations as managers consider racial abuse an acceptable “joke”. .
It said: “Those complaints are often intercepted by regulators and not allowed to go anywhere because they don’t consider the abuse to be racist which means there are few mechanisms for protection or justice.” for the abused.”
