Welsh Rugby Union: Chief executive Steve Phillips stresses importance of culture after allegations

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Phillips appointed performance director Nigel Walker in 2021

Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) bosses insist equality, diversity and inclusion are important to their culture following recent allegations.

Accusations of sexism and misogyny have emerged from a former WRU employee and are now the subject of a tribunal.

The allegations have raised questions about the values of the organisation.

"I can't emphasise enough equality, diversity and inclusion are very important to us," said WRU chief executive Steve Phillips.

"We want our staff to be able to participate, be respected, valued and, more importantly, feel safe."

The tribunal case is ongoing with the hearing expected to be in September and the WRU unable to publicly address the specific allegations.

"It is something when any allegations of that nature [emerge] we take extremely seriously, which we did," said Phillips.

"We commissioned an independent legal review of them and that ran its course and it concluded.

"I can't really say too much about that but I am not going to use that as an excuse to not say how important culture is to us.

"Diversity, equality, core values of rugby, the core values of the WRU. The inclusion of women, whether that is playing, coaching, from board member or anywhere in between, is fundamental to the WRU and rugby.

"We are on an EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) journey. We have appointed independent experts to help us along the journey and that's been ongoing since late 2020.

"We have had various board training sessions, consultation with staff, we have an executive board sponsor who is Nigel Walker (WRU performance director).

"We had an all-staff call last week inviting staff contributions and we had an overwhelming response and they are there to hold us, including me, to account if we think we are not measuring up to the values.

"Everybody will say the cliché, all organisations are only as good as people, we really care about our people.

"Culture is one of these journeys you begin that never ends because expectations change and you can always look to improve.

"You can never be complacent in this space and you have to keep checking in with the people that matter here."

When asked whether the allegations had been damaging for the WRU, Phillips replied: "They are allegations but I am not going to get drawn into the tribunal case so it's probably best if I don't comment any further on that."

Long-term strategy

Walker was appointed by the WRU in July 2021 and says an equality strategy is being formulated.

"It is a subject that is dear to my heart, equality full stop, which is why I volunteered to be the executive board champion," added Walker.

"Not so I can have another badge, but I really believe we can do something great.

"All organisations in the UK have been revisiting their EDI policies as a result of the George Floyd and MeToo movement, so we are not in this alone.

"We recognise we can get better and every organisation can, but we are going to do it from a staff point of view.

"I had an email from staff who volunteered to be part of it and we have too many people.

"You won't have a tranche of people who want to be a part of it unless they thought the organisation was taking it seriously.

"So we will put together a strategy which will be driven by the people within the organisation for the people within the organisation.

"It is a journey. It is not necessarily about correcting any wrongs, it's about making this organisation even better to work in and that is something I feel passionate about."