Former Ambulance Victoria executive sues, claiming sexism ‘shattered’ her career

A former executive at Ambulance Victoria has brought landmark legal action against the emergency service, claiming her life was tipped upside down and her career shattered because of sexist and discriminatory treatment by its senior management.

As director of complex care, Tracey Tobias was the only woman among Ambulance Victoria’s seven clinical operations directors when appointed in 2018. She said the impact of the sexism she had experienced was so severe, it destroyed her mental health, self-confidence and professional self-esteem.

Former Ambulance Victoria senior manager Tracey Tobias.Credit:Jason South

Tobias told The Age her “very fulfilling and wonderful career” as a health services manager, which included time as a chief executive in the private hospital system and as a director in the public system, had “largely ended” because of the destructive toll of her time at Ambulance Victoria.

Tobias’ lawyers, Maurice Blackburn, have lodged a Federal Circuit Court statement of claim alleging she was systematically discriminated against, denied the conditions given to her male colleagues and forced out of the organisation after complaining about sexism.

She said on Wednesday her professional reputation had been damaged.

“I’m selling my home as I cannot secure another job at that level … my reputation is shattered,” Tobias said.

“Health is a very small world and I think my reputation has been destroyed somewhat.”

As the director of complex care, Tobias was responsible for the management of adult retrieval (transport of critically ill and time-critical patients), Air Ambulance and Victoria Stroke Telemedicine.

Her legal action is the first following widespread allegations of sex discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault in Ambulance Victoria workplaces, revealed by 40 paramedics who spoke to The Age in 2020.

Tobias claims in legal documents filed with the Federal Circuit Court that she experienced sexist comments in her everyday working life, including from her boss, executive director Michael Stephenson. She alleges that when she complained she did not have the same operational vehicle arrangements as her male colleagues, Stephenson responded: “Why would we let a middle-aged woman drive a car with lights and sirens?”

‘Why would we let a middle-aged woman drive a car with lights and sirens?’

Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein said Tobias’ contract had not been renewed after she had complained about sexism.

“Our client has been punished for calling out Ambulance Victoria’s discriminatory workplace culture,” he said. “The court claims raise questions about what is happening at the very top of AV’s senior leadership structures.”

Tobias is seeking damages for loss of income, health problems including depression, impact on family relationships and the loss of professional self-confidence. She wants a declaration that Ambulance Victoria breached the Fair Work Act with its actions against her.

Her action comes after the second half of a Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission inquiry into the culture at Ambulance Victoria, released in March, found an alpha-male culture endures and gender stereotypes that elite paramedics should be “white, male … confident, stoic and are the family breadwinner” prevent women from being accepted in senior roles.

The first half of commissioner Ro Allen’s report, released last November, found more than half of employees (52.4 per cent) said they had been bullied, nearly half (47 per cent) said they had experienced discrimination and 33 respondents reported pressure for sex or requests for sex acts at work.

Ambulance Victoria board chair Ken Lay asked for the inquiry after many allegations of serious misconduct against women at work were published in The Age.

Some paramedics said the treatment caused them to consider suicide; 12 paramedics alleged sexual assaults at work. Ambulance Victoria referred two men to police for alleged sexual assault.

Lay said he had been “stunned on a number of levels” after dozens of female paramedics alleged systemic abuse in the ambulance service, including women being sexually harassed by senior colleagues while treating dying patients, told not to have children and warned they were no use in intensive care units once they had “used their uterus”.

Tobias said women experienced paternalistic, overprotective and belittling treatment at all levels of Ambulance Victoria.

“Strong women like myself don’t stand a chance in this organisation.”

Ambulance Victoria pledged in March to create a “safer place for our people to work and volunteer, and a more progressive and capable workplace”.

A spokeswoman for the organisation said: “As the matter is before the courts it is not appropriate to comment.”

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