Former employees of the Welsh Rugby Union claim the organisation has a "toxic culture" in which one staff member used a racist term in a meeting and another said he wanted to "rape" a female colleague. One woman says she considered suicide as a result of bullying at the WRU, saying she went as far as writing a manual for her husband on what to do in the event of her death and described her time at the WRU as “an open wound”.
In a programme titled BBC Wales Investigates: Welsh Rugby Under the Spotlight, Charlotte Wathan, the former general manager for women's rugby at the WRU, alleges a male colleague said, in her hearing and in front of other members of WRU staff in an office, that he wanted to “rape” her. Ms Wathan claims a senior manager witnessed the comment but said nothing.
But the WRU said Ms Wathan's allegations "remain unsubstantiated following a thorough independent legal investigation". It said the allegation was investigated and not upheld by an independent lawyer hired by the WRU after Ms Wathan raised the matter and others as part of a wider grievance. The WRU also said the claims of bullying made by another female employee were investigated, and that she made no formal grievance while working there. It also says some of the claims made by the BBC are misleading.
