Staying Ahead of the Game on Diversity and Inclusion

Michael Attard

Before I became who I am now, I was born a human, a person. But before I became a colleague to my peers at Sydney Metro (or even in your network here on LinkedIn), I was acutely aware that maybe construction was not for me. Yesterday I shared a speech with my colleagues that I have transposed here to share with you. A piece of encouragement to ensure that this industry I love, Construction, is one where we can all work in regardless of identity.

I am certain that the construction industry we know now, is not the same as it was for many of us in years gone by. The events that we live through as people, leave fingerprints on an entire generation. These are also defining and shaping our views, and often values. Put simply the fabric of our nation has changed, and our values are evolving.

At JHCPBG Sydney Metro TSE Works, we live and breathe ambitious goals. We are led by a vision that keeps us striving for integrity, while being responsible and working within one team. Our Project Director, Terry Sleiman drives us all to seek excellence under the mantra of being "Ahead of the Game."

But yesterday I spoke on a subject that’s not one our industry would normally participate in. Not a topic we would normally identify as an issue, for good or bad reasons. For me, and many other persons in this industry this is not a topic that anyone feels comfortable in confronting. But easy is not what we do at Sydney Metro, John Holland, CPB and Ghella. We do not commit to easy projects and we do not deliver easily.

No one ever refers to a day in the construction industry as easy. There are several factors that make this environment tough. The physical demands, working in the elements, transience, being away from home, long hours, difficulty in finding balance between home and work, while also contending with the demands of relationships, while just trying to make ends meet – right? Our workers know this very well.

Some of these things we may not be resourced enough to control, but others we may.

Our industry is plagued by poor mental health outcomes, but at the same time an incredibly tenacious camaraderie that is truly tested in our lowest of lows but celebrated in our most triumphant successes.

The construction industry is not recognised as a socially progressive nor innovative industry. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics – we are third last.

As an industry we participate in conversations many other industries would not; and we are often best known for crude, homophobic jokes and for sexually harassing women from the scaffolding. If you need some reminding, see below.

Back in 2014, the Construction Industry Training Board reported that 48% of people experience homophobic language on sites every year, with 11% hearing it at least once a week. I challenge these statistics in the thought that many other forms of discriminatory language would go unnoticed as a result of language as such being normalised in our crib rooms and at the coal face.

At times this has been the daily reality for me.

In Australia, it has been reported less young people are wanting to enter the construction industry. I don’t necessarily think it’s absolutely because they fear getting dirty or doing hard work.

For many of us in project management we know too well the struggles of attracting and retaining our best asset, our people. We must continue our efforts to change these indicators if we wish to do better. One of the ways which we can do this is to change the way we converse and talk to each other. We must champion inclusiveness and not sameness in order to engage with difference.

I recall studying my first degree in HR where we were reading empirical studies where the key learnings were, “people were more effective when supported by their employer.” I wondered why this hypothesis was even thought about – surely this was common sense. Then a few years later, graduating from university and landing into this industry I learnt that may be common was not so, common.

I commenced my career in construction as a Safety Graduate for Thiess. I was based within the corporate office in West End, Brisbane – an area not at all representative of our industry. Back then diversity was attractive to other industries, but not entirely embraced in our arena.

While starting my career in corporate, I sought site based roles knowing that the site was where our core business was. I was na?ve, I was ill-informed, but undoubtedly brave. The invincibility I thought I had was enough for the General Manager at the time to take me aside and sit me down. I was told that I needed to change before moving into a site based role. I was told that site wasn’t ready for me. I was warned about being bullied and I was warned about assault. Everyone was worried about me, except me. I was perplexed, does he do this with everyone, or was this just me.

There were times where I wish I heeded his advice. But I do not want to focus on attacks, assaults or language that I was subjected to, and the subject of. What I want to focus on is the fact they existed, and they were real.

My skin was thick coming into this industry, and my character has always been strong and convicted. The attacks made me resilient, and with the lemons that life and my career threw at me, I made lemonade. I never resisted or chose to be victimised by all I had experienced. Today, I have never been so respected in my career and in my industry.

Looking back, I wonder why I never made the steps to raise complaints through my leaders. I reconcile that this may have been because leaders themselves were not ready to have these conversations. I recall one time where a manager of mine was told by my direct manager, that her role in the business was not to challenge safety, but to make cups of tea. So was this a safe place to present concerns or issues about the insults I was receiving. If this manager of mine could say this to a female professional, what would he say to me?

I was also scared that speaking up against the assaults and humiliation I received would affirm the words being said about myself, or anyone else who spoke up about safety. This is because homophobic and sexist attitudes are used to bully workers into accepting unsafe work conditions – if somebody speaks up about a safety issue, it is not uncommon to be called a "pussy" or a "faggot." This happens on a site level, from managers and supervisors to workers, but also among workers – it's systemic and it's enabled. With a worker killed on a construction site in Australia once a week, there is a serious side behind the dumb jokes.

For me change and inclusivity is not a foreign idea or an unattainable feat. It can begin at an organic level. We can inspire staff to be role models, and share their stories about not fitting the mould, which in turn may help someone else exhale at the belief that difference is normal, and okay. We must change the way normalise, largely through inaction, the use of terms, which may inadvertently exclude and discriminate our colleagues.

So why Wear It Purple Day, why construction, and why now?

Wear it Purple Day was founded in 2010 in response to teenagers taking their own lives following bullying and harassment due to the lack of acceptance of their sexuality and gender identity. The issues of bullying and harassment, and certainly suicide is well known to our industry. So, the message relates.

The aim is simple with Wear it Purple Day – to foster supportive, safe and accepting environments for young people, to avoid disadvantage and ensure their wellbeing. It shows young people across the globe that there is hope, there are people who support and accept them, and that they have the right to be proud of who they are. The idea is simple: if you agree, Wear it Purple!

I believe these environments can be found, and built within our industry.

Sydney Metro TSE Works is the first project I have worked on where we have a Psychosocial Management Plan, which I was fortunate enough to develop with our safety team. This means we recognise that mental health is important, because we are seeing the effects of mental illness in our industry. On our project we celebrate diversity in many ways every day. We host Harmony Day, we aim for higher inclusion rates of diversity through our SBAT programs and trainee programs with people who have experienced disadvantage. This has been the first project I have worked on where at point of induction we confront discrimination and assert that we will not discriminate on the grounds of sexuality, racism, religion. We recognise the mental health challenges in our industry, so as a result we have bolstered up our resources to recognise and respond to mental illness through provision of mental health programs, parternships with Mates in Construction among just the support network of being one team.

I asked my colleagues, and in writing this I plead to the wider community in construction to continue all of this and strive for more.

Why?

Because at JHCPBG we are respected in our industry. We are leaders in our respective disciplines. When the industry talks, they talk about us.

I asked my coleagues and I implore you to echo the same because we are good people who want to attract and retain the best people in an industry effected tremendously by transience.

Because the norms of our society have changed, and we need to reflect this change in the way in which we conduct business.

Not because I’m telling you to do this, but because this is the right thing to do.

Wear it purple Day does not mean pedestrian crossings will one day be painted in rainbows. Rather it is the commencement of safe conversations in our industry. An industry as I said, is not the best at being inclusive of people of diverse backgrounds.

Because in construction we aren’t all men in hanging off scaffolds heckling offensive language to women.

The biggest way we can stand up is to speak out against behaviours or language that are non-inclusive. This includes homophobic remarks i.e. “that’s so gay,” or sexist comments that support risk based behaviour, or statements and suggestions that are derogatory to any group of people.

People deserve to be safe at work, and this stretches beyond what looks safe, and includes the feeling of safety too.

It shows young people coming into this industry that we are changing. It supports the idea that construction is changing, and you can bring your whole self to work.

The idea is simple: if you agree, Wear it Purple.

At JHCPBG we did exactly that! A special thank you to Salina Scott, Vimala Ferrari and Peter McInerney for supporting this initiative. Thank you also to Terry Sleiman for the leadership you demonstrate and for providing me the platform to increase our ability to work as one team.