A tribunal has ordered a printing company that includes teamwork and respect among its core values to train HR specialists and supervisors to deal with workplace complaints after a worker was mocked for making a discrimination claim.
A NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal panel – judicial member Anne Scahill and non-judicial members Elayne Hayes and Michael Nasir – dismissed complaints of harassment over race, carer’s responsibility and disability but upheld one instance of victimisation.
The worker, of Serbian origin, had been employed as a general hand in the bindery department of Hannanprint Pty Ltd since 1994.
He claimed he had been subjected to a litany of discrimination, including racial slurs graffitied on his locker that was not removed until three months after he complained, including a swastika superimposed on an American flag and abuse including “you stink”.
There had been complaints about the general hand’s body odour.
He said he was regularly called names such as "moron ", "imbecile”, "peasant" and "bloody wog".
The man said that his colleagues held a cancer party to celebrate his imminent death when they believed he had the disease.
His supervisor denied there was any cancer party but admitted fashioning a scythe and pretending to be the Grim Reaper and taunting the general hand about death, for which the company gave him a written warning. The team leader said it was "payback" for earlier verbal abuse from the general hand.
The general hand thought this was a reference to his dead wife, who he cared for until her death of cancer in 2006.
He said that before he went on holiday to Serbia with his sons, a team leader mimicked a plane crashing, expressed hope the plane would fall out of the sky and that he did not care if the man’s children were on the plane.
The team leader denied this.
The printing company maintained the general hand’s own conduct "largely contributed to any unhappiness in the workplace ". It was claimed he made derogatory racial comments about his supervisors including "Aussie pig" and threats such as "I’ll kill you".
The panel said despite the general hand’s obvious distress, he failed to prove some of the incidents happened, or that he was treated less favourably on the grounds of race, carer’s responsibility or disability.
It said he did not explain how a person not thought to have those attributes would be treated differently.
However, the panel upheld the general hand’s complaint that he had been mocked by his team leader about his ADR complaint after the company HR department told him of it.
The panel awarded the general hand $5000 for hurt feelings and ordered the company to train its managers, supervisors and HR staff in dealing with workplace complaints.
It asked the company to submit within 28 days, for approval by the tribunal, a proposal "setting out how [Hannanprint] proposes to do this including the number and length of sessions and the subject matter to be dealt with".
Zareski v Hannanprint Pty Ltd [2011] NSWADT 283 (6 December 2001)