Sophie Conlon
*Names changed for privacy
AFTER just nine months of operation, the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre has two confirmed SafeWork SA investigations currently underway.
Several former staff members, ex coordinator Blair Jacobs*, ex lifeguard and duty manager Morgan Walters* and ex guest experience officer Charlie Carr*, have told The Border Watch what they experienced while working at Wulanda.
Despite Belgravia Leisure – the operator of Wulanda- promoting inclusivity, these former employees have accused management of bullying, discrimination and excusing sexual harassment among other things.
Belgravia has refuted these claims and a spokesperson said the company cares about the physical and psychological well-being of all people.
While they commented on operational matters at Wulanda, they declined to comment on employment matters.
Despite thinking Belgravia was the wrong choice of management, Jacobs said Wulanda itself was amazing.
“Council has put a lot of effort into getting this building, this facility, up and running and it looks amazing, it is a fantastic facility, we should be proud of it,” they said.
These combined allegations have resulted in a high staff turnover rate at the centre, with only one original coordinator still in the role they were hired for when Wulanda opened in December last year.
Walters said they were ready for a career change when they began at Wulanda, but since resigning have gone back to their previous roles.
“I don’t think there’s been any staff that’s left on good terms,” they said.
“I choose to see it as a health and wellness centre because we are promoting healthy living, swimming, sports, keeping active, doing classes, social interaction, it should be a fun place to be, it should improve your health, both physical and mental.
“They’re having staff that are resigning because their mental health has been so bad.”
The spokesperson agreed there was some staff turnover, but said no employees had been fired while working at Wulanda.
“While there has been some turnover due to a misalignment of expectations or values and staff behaviours, Belgravia Leisure is pleased to highlight that a vast majority of Wulanda’s staff perform admirably, contributing to the community’s needs and the facility’s high usage rates,” they said.
Jacobs claimed there had been a drastic reduction in memberships but the Belgravia spokesperson said patronage at Wulanda had exceeded expectations.
“We currently have 855 children enrolled in our Learn to Swim program, 624 Health Club members and over 500 Aquatic members – results which have exceeded targets and expectations,” they said.
CLAIMS OF BULLYING
As a coordinator, Jacobs said they were shot down when trying to stand up for their staff and were bullied by colleagues.
“I was called a ‘compulsive lying c*nt,’ by a colleague,” they said.
“When reporting those issues the exact words that were used by my [leadership team member] was that she’s ‘not getting into a game of tit for tat’.”
In another incident Jacobs said they, and other staff members, were called ‘f****ts’.
“I was informed by a staff member that one of the coordinators referred to both myself and [name redacted] as f****ts saying that she was ‘sick of those f****ts,’.”
“This is complete discrimination and it was swept under the rug like a lot of other things that have occurred at the site.”
Jacobs said they did not have much power as a coordinator, they were shut down when trying to help other staff members, and there were multiple occasions where staff would be left crying due to bullying.
When they tried to stand up for staff in different departments Jacobs said they were told it was “not their business”.
“There doesn’t seem to be any repercussions of those actions, and if there is, it’s not visible to anybody, so nobody knows that there are repercussions so people continue with the same behaviour,” they said.
“It’s not a nice feeling, to watch people that you have seen as really strong, independent, great people rapidly fall into a depression and become a husk of themselves.”
Walters said they also experienced bullying and when they tried to involve their coordinator and take it higher, they were dismissed.
They said they were told there was no point in reporting bullying to their manager because “they ‘f**king hate you’”.
“We had been told numerous times that they hate us, they don’t want to speak to us, they don’t care, they f**king hate you,” they said.
Carr alleged they often heard a coordinator use demeaning language when talking about staff, which was overheard by patrons.
“There was a lot of derogatory language to certain groups and people, I heard her say some transphobic slurs and make fun of trans people,” they said.
“We have a walkie talkie to communicate with everybody around if we needed help up front, and so we always keep it on in case of emergency,” they said.
“I had it on one day and also helping this family and I hear ‘c*nt, c*nt, f**king c*nt, these bl**dy things, c*nt,’ over the radio that was her just having a go at another staff member.
“I had to turn it off and profusely apologise to parents.”
On top of this, Jacobs claimed some staff members felt uncomfortable coming into work due to sexual harassment.
“There were a number of young women, underage women, who said that they were extremely uncomfortable with one of the duty managers and lifeguards because of inappropriate things he was saying and doing,” they said.
This was backed up by Walters who said the underage girls came to them for support.
“One girl described that he was standing so close to her that she could feel him breathing on her.
“He had also made a comment about one of the girls about her body, ‘you look more attractive if you don’t have your glasses on,’.”
Walters said they reported the incidents to management without visible action taken, or support given, with that employee still working at the centre.
Carr said they had experienced some sexual harassment and misogyny while working at Wulanda.
“[Name redacted] a couple of times made some really inappropriate jokes to me regarding my body, a lot of them of a sexual nature,” they said.
They said they also fielded a lot of complaints about lifeguards ‘eyeballing’ people in the pools and making patrons feel uncomfortable.
Despite these claims of bullying and sexual harassment, the Belgravia spokesperson said they promoted a work environment free from discrimination and harassment.
“As per our Equal Opportunity, Diversity, Anti Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying Policy, Belgravia Leisure is committed to providing workplaces and sites free of all forms of discrimination,” they said.
“We do not tolerate any form of discrimination/abuse towards our employees.”
They said staff members could through multiple channels and they had received and listened to communication from employees at all levels.
“Any claims of a serious nature are thoroughly investigated with appropriate actions taken as a result,” they said.
ALLEGATIONS OF UNSAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT
The former employees said it was the rostered duty managers’ responsibility to take care of the plant room and ensure all pools had the right chemical balances.
Though Walters said they were never properly trained in the plant room and fixing chemical imbalances.
“I’m in charge of making sure that the chlorine levels in that pool are high enough to make it safe for people, but not too high that it’s going to melt your skin off,” they said.
“We were sort of told where the levels are supposed to be, but then found out those aren’t the South Australian levels, they were Victorian levels that we were following, and both states at different levels.”
The Belgravia spokesperson said all staff were given training relevant to their roles.
But, Jacobs said there were times the chemical levels were incorrect and legally the pool should have been closed, but remained open.
Walters said they were once told off for closing a pool due to chemical imbalances.
The Belgravia spokesperson said the pools adhered to strict standards set by SA Health.
“Our staff are well aware that these standards are non-negotiable and the pool cannot open unless it meets these requirements,” they said.
“With the increased number of swimmers under the new system, there have been occasional short closures to bring the pool back to the correct parameters, which highlights that staff are taking the appropriate action when the chemical levels require it.”
Walters said another problem in the plant room was chemical storage and spillage, with chemicals stored incorrectly and chemical spills not being reported.
All former employees The Border Watch spoke to said an employee allegedly came in on their own time, pulled two lifeguards off the pool deck and used their scuba diving gear to enter the balance tank, a confined space underground that holds pool water.
Carr said this alleged incident was common knowledge amongst staff.
Walters said both the diving and general safety concerns in the plant room were reported to management and SafeWork SA.
SafeWork has since told The Border Watch these matters are still under investigation, but they were unable to provide any more information.
“Inspectors are working with the business and have attended the site to conduct inquiries, which are continuing.” a spokesperson said.
Still working at Wulanda when SafeWork visited, Jacobs said employees were told to “cover stuff up”.
The Belgravia spokesperson admitted SafeWork had attended Wulanda and said it always participated in interactions with the organisation.
“Our company policy is not to shy away from these at all and in fact we welcome the independent review if required to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” they said.
“The process that has occurred at Wulanda has shown that our systems and processes are in place and to the standard they expect.”
Jacobs also claimed there were people working at Wulanda without relevant qualifications and checks although the Belgravia spokesperson denied this claim.
“It’s important to note that every single lifeguard has the formal required qualifications including a lifeguard certificate and first aid training, and all team members have their working with children checks complete,” the spokesperson said.
As well as staff members not being fully qualified, Walters said pools were sometimes open when they were not being watched.
“There was even threats from the [leadership team member] cutting back on lifeguards expecting one lifeguard to watch two areas, so your warm water pool and 25 metre pool,” they said.
“There are times where we’ve had one lifeguard on the waterpark and the LTS (learn to swim) pool.”
The Belgravia spokesperson said Wulanda followed the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations (GSPO) and had the required lifeguard numbers to safely supervise the aquatic areas.
“This is a requirement Belgravia Leisure takes extremely seriously and ensures all our facilities adhere to,” they said.
“As Wulanda went through its initial opening with new lifeguards, we were well over the ratios required to ensure the staff had a chance to settle into their new roles in a new facility.
“As we moved past this, lifeguard shifts were reduced to still be within the GSPO whilst operating at a more appropriate staffing level.
Though Walters said they were aware of an incident that could have resulted in drowning due to a lack of lifeguards on duty, and that as a lifeguard, they were not told what rules to implement or how to implement them and believed they had not been given enough training.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Jacobs said they were not trained or given any tools to learn how to properly do their job and ’fumbled’ their way through.
“It was all essentially teach yourself everything that you need to know because there was nobody that knew the system well enough to be able to show you how the system worked,” they said.
“For the first couple of weeks, I was logging in as somebody else because I didn’t have access on my own username.”
The Belgravia spokesperson said all staff members underwent company wide site inductions and role-specific training was provided.
“Additionally, all Wulanda staff have the formal required training and qualifications for their roles and no staff member is permitted to be rostered on a shift without these qualifications,” they said.
“Regular training, meetings and communication is undertaken to ensure staff are confident to perform their roles.”
Jacobs said it was a divided workplace as staff were allegedly told to “stay in their lanes” and not communicate with colleagues from different areas.
They said during their employment there was no staff meeting with the venue manager and five area coordinators to keep track of what was happening within the centre.
This was backed up by Carr, who said the workplace felt ‘secular’.
Carr said it was their job to field complaints and on one occasion they were told by their coordinator not to submit an incident report after an incident in the pool.
They took the issue to a manager and then never heard about it again, but said this was not unusual.
“Complaints are almost never looked at, which concerns me a lot,” they said.
However the Belgravia spokesperson said health and safety were non-negotiable priorities.
“Belgravia Leisure teams undergo robust due diligence and audit surrounding all things safety, and each and every venue including Wulanda is audited internally twice a year using the comprehensive Belgravia Auditing App which is then verified by external third party audit functions,” they said.
“Similarly, incident reporting is taken very seriously at Belgravia Leisure with staff provided access to the online reporting system so that they can fulfill [sic] their WHS obligations to report any incidents they witness.”
Jacobs said they were told not to talk to staff at the City of Mount Gambier, which owns the facility, even though it was their job to keep council informed.
“I was told I would be put in touch with council by the national manager and then I was told not to speak to council by the [leadership team member],” they said.
In line with this, Carr said there was ‘zero communication’ between council and Belgravia.
“From what I know there just wasn’t a lot of communication, and I’m not sure who’s side that was on,” they said.
Both the Belgravia spokesperson and council’s chief executive officer Sarah Phillpot said the organisations had good communication.
The Belgravia spokesperson said regular meetings were held where they provided council with comprehensive updates.
“The reporting structure is designed to allow communication to flow through to Council in the most efficient way,” they said.
Ms Phillpot said Belgravia was responsible for day to day management of the centre, including staffing, operations, programming and reaching key performance indicators (KPIs).
“Council and Belgravia have a close working relationship and openly communicate through a regular schedule of meetings to formally review and discuss KPIs, expectations and operational issues as they arise,” she said.
“Informally, council and Belgravia also communicate to address/mitigate any unexpected issues as required.
“Council expected a level of complexity during the first 12 months of operation, therefore we have established a strong relationship with Belgravia that includes open and clear communication to ensure that Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre meets community expectations.”
Worksafe SA confirmed that investigations are continuing.
