Resolved complaint (77) about sexual harassment in employment

About the complaint

The complainant is an Aboriginal man. He was employed by the respondent health service as a Fire Safety and Security Officer. The complainant claimed the health service discriminated against him because of his race including by not automatically converting his part-time role to a full-time role when this became available until he raised the issue with his union, and ignoring his submissions in response to performance issues raised with him by the health service. He alleged his manager slapped him on the bottom when she walked past him on a number of occasions. He claimed he reported this conduct to the health service but no action was taken other than to offer him a meeting with the manager to ‘clear the air'. 

The health service denied the allegations but agreed to participate in conciliation to try to resolve the complaint.

The complaint was resolved with an agreement that the health service write to the complainant expressing regret for the events giving rise to his complaint, pay him $40,000 and update its training for managers on responding to allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace.

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This is a summary of a selected complaint that has been resolved through our conciliation process. It's designed to help people better understand how complaints might be resolved and what outcomes are possible.

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• all complaints are de-identified
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