A male firefighter who placed a camera in the women’s toilets of a southside station was allowed to remain at work with his victim for months as authorities struggled to deal with the incident.
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A female firefighter discovered the pen camera as she went to the toilet at her station in May 2011.
The discovery was reported through the then ACT Fire Brigade hierarchy, but it took months before a formal decision was made to investigate.
In December 2011, seven months after the camera was found, they wrote to other firefighters on shift at the time to say they were looking into the incident.
A short time later, the firefighter responsible came forward, made admissions, and was suspended.
He formally left ACT Fire and Rescue in 2012.
Disturbingly, it is understood the culprit received a payout as part of a confidential agreement with the government.
ESA Commissioner Dominic Lane, who was not with the agency at the time, has conceded the handling of the incident was flawed, while noting it and a second incident were isolated and out of character for ACT Fire and Rescue.
Mr Lane said the agency has since undertaken a huge amount of work to improve its complaint handling processes and to encourage and accommodate gender and cultural diversity.
The woman initially went to police but withdrew her complaint soon after, and Mr Lane said she did not wish it to become public or take it any further.
She and the male firefighter responsible remained in the same station after the initial complaint, albeit on different shifts, as the agency grappled with what to do.
Mr Lane said the early response was complicated by the need to avoid drawing attention to the woman.
“Good people were trying to work through these issues, respecting the female firefighter … and not wanting to identify her, they just did not know how to approach it,” he said.
“In hindsight, you would say of course you’d do it differently, but as we all know, with human factors like these, it’s sometimes easier to see it afterwards.”
In responding to the revelations, the United Firefighters Union condemned the incident, labelling it as “appalling” and the delayed action as “disgraceful”.
“It is also disgraceful that workers affected by this were not protected, that due process was not observed, and that it took over a year of bungling for the bureaucracy to resolve this shabby episode,” ACT branch secretary David Livingstone said.
“It's time they had a real dialogue with us to fix these process problems, so that history doesn't repeat itself.”
The incident, and one other, helped spark a major independent review, which has now been completed.
ACT Fire and Rescue stations have also gone through a “respect, equity and diversity” program.
Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell last month launched a campaign to attract more women into Canberra’s emergency services.
It is focused on increasing the representation of women in ACT Fire and Rescue.
Mr Lane said he was concerned women would now be discouraged from joining.
But he reiterated that it was an isolated incident. “Let me assure, if I can, this is a really good workplace to be in, we are very open to getting more women into the organisation and we will certainly do everything to make sure incidents like this aren’t repeated.”
