Freight Rail, Workforce, Certification & Training

Arc Infrastructure wins gender diversity award

Arc Infrastructure (until recently Brookfield Rail) has received an award recognising its efforts to close the gender pay gap and in trying to get more women into engineering jobs.

The Most Ambitious Company in Gender Diversity award, given to Arc Infrastructure by Engineers Australia, comes mere weeks after the company received the Workforce Diversity award at the Australian Rail Industry Awards last month.

Arc Infrastructure’s CEO Paul Larsen said that while the company was pleased with the recognition of its efforts towards creating a fair and equitable work environment, much work remained to be done to completely close the gap.

“While we are proud to accept this award, we recognise this reflects only a point in time. Our company and the broader industry are still on a journey to creating a more diverse workplace,” Larsen said.

Part of the company’s efforts have involved the implementation of strategies and projects to help increase and retain its team of female engineers, which have resulted in a reduction in the gender pay gap on base salaries from 22% in 2012 to a mere 0.6% in 2017.

Moreover, female participation in the Arc Infrastructure’s workforce has increased from 9% in 2008 to 24% in 2017, while one fifth of the company’s engineers are now women and the number of women in management roles has increased in the same period from 4% to 26%.

One the latest initiatives by Arc Infrastructure has been to recruit women into track maintenance worker roles, which was achieved by the company for the first time in 2016.

“This award is an exciting and public recognition that goes a long way to recognising the improvements we have made in this space. However, we must remain vigilant to ensure that we continue to foster and develop a workplace that is fair and safe for everyone,” Larsen said.