LTA accused over ‘old boys club’ culture

“There was a lack of women,” said Smith, “particularly in leadership roles, and the other thing I noticed was the massive lack of a career progression plan. This applied to both genders but seems to be particularly strong for women.”

Smith referred specifically to a female colleague whom he felt had been passed over for promotions. That colleague, whom we will call “Jane”, finally left the organisation last year. She told The Telegraph, “I wanted to progress at the LTA but my boss seemed to feel threatened by an ambitious woman. It was not a nice experience. I try not to look back on it. It was a shame that one person, and a lack of support from HR, ended up making me leave.”

Another employee from the Downey period – “Alice” – claimed that she had been used as an unofficial counsellor by other women in the organisation.

“I had between 10 and 20 women talking to me about their experiences and the state of their mental health,” Alice said. “They didn’t want to go to HR. So when an ex-colleague told me about the manner of Nicola’s departure, I was really sad. I thought things had changed, but her experience suggested otherwise.

“I felt I was treated differently because I was a woman,” Alice continued, “and my own mental health was suffering as a result. I am fairly sure I would have been better supported and respected if I had been a man – particularly a white, middle-class man. I am tired of hearing, seeing and experiencing gender discrimination in the workplace and believe that the LTA, like other organisations, has a responsibility to both their employees and the wider public who love tennis. Most people think that gender discrimination comes from men but I would also suggest that, in my experience of the LTA, women engaged in discrimination against other women.”

When these claims were put to the LTA, it replied, “We don’t recognise the characterisation that there is a difference in the way women and men are treated within the LTA. We pride ourselves on having an open and inclusive culture that values everyone equally.

“Tennis is one of the most gender balanced sports and we strive to achieve equality both on and off court in everything we do. Since Scott Lloyd became chief executive, the percentage of female employees sits at 45 per cent; the LTA Board has increased female representation to 50 per cent; the gender pay gap has improved year on year; and the LTA has received no formal complaints about gender discrimination from current or former employees.

“Nevertheless we are keen to carry on improving female representation throughout the organisation, and in the last 18 months there have been 20 women promoted compared to 12 men, while 75 per cent of those on our Leadership Accelerator Programme are women. We will continue to do all we can to make the LTA an open and welcoming place for anybody to work in.” 

While the above figures look encouraging, publicly filed data shows that the LTA’s percentage of female employees fell between 2017 and 2019, from 49 to 45 per cent. Meanwhile, the percentage of women in the upper quartile of earners fell from 34 to 30 per cent in the same period.

There were signs of improvement when Julie Porter – who had previously worked with Lloyd at David Lloyd Leisure – was appointed chief operating officer of the LTA in May 2018. Porter thus became the most influential woman in the organisation’s history. Yet while her appointment may have slightly improved the gender balance on the executive, it did not translate into a boost for women throughout the organisation.

Commenting generally on the office culture, one male employee who left the LTA during this period said “My experience was that women were regularly cut out of the conversation by being talked over and ignored in meetings.”

Four female heads of department have left since November 2018, soon followed by the director of communications, who had been a member of the executive team. She left while on compassionate leave to look after her young son, who had recently developed cancer.

Four of these five women are believed to have signed NDAs in exchange for compensation packages, and all declined to comment when approached. 

The LTA accounts for 2018 record an expenditure of £1,862,000 on “exceptional items”. These are described in the accompanying text as “costs linked to an internal reorganisation to support the new strategy”. When another £207,000 was spent on “exceptional items” in 2019, the total expenditure listed under this heading climbed past £2m in two years.

When asked how much of this sum had been spent on compromise departure agreements, an LTA spokesman replied: “It is covered by strict confidentiality causes so I can’t give you any figures, but it would be completely wrong to suggest that this exceptional expenditure line in the accounts would refer fully or largely to any enhanced payments to former employees. These would have made up an extremely small proportion of the total expenditure, for a very small number of people. The bulk of the figure is made up by typical employment costs for the restructure, and standard ways of ending employment.”

As part of last year’s LTA rebranding exercise – which was entitled “Tennis Opened Up” – Lloyd promised: “We want to break down barriers and change perceptions so that tennis in Britain is truly seen as a sport for all.”

Yet while the organisation’s gender politics remain questionable, and when multiple payouts have been handed to departing staff to secure confidentiality – and in some cases in exchange for waiving employment rights – Lloyd’s regime has yet to demonstrate that it is any more enlightened than its predecessors.