Indigenous domestic violence worker sacked after racism complaint

SAMANTHA Cooper alleges she was subjected to months of racist comments from co-workers questioning her Aboriginal heritage.

A QUEENSLAND indigenous domestic violence worker alleges she was subjected to months of racist comments from co-workers about her Aboriginal heritage.

Samantha Cooper, 25, worked as a part-time project manager at the Moreton Bay-based Centre Against Domestic Abuse between March and November last year, when she was sacked from the $600-a-week role two days after raising the alleged treatment with the board.

The third-year QUT law student has made a formal complaint in which she says she received comments from co-workers at the government-funded body including “What percentage Aboriginal are you?”, “You don’t look Aboriginal” and that she was “quite pretty for an Aboriginal”.

In one instance, she claims a team leader allegedly introduced her to a new staff member in front of a room full of people by saying, “Sam can usually be found in this office, when she hasn’t gone walkabout.”

She alleges the same team leader later told her she was a good worker and that “Aboriginal workers can sometimes be lazy.” In a separate instance, she alleges her manager asked her “How are your little babies?”, assuming she had children “because I’m a young Aboriginal woman”, according to a timeline of incidents contained in a submission to the Fair Work Commission.

“Over a period of about six months there were just continually comments made that I thought at the time were just made sometimes out of ignorance rather than in a malicious fashion,” she told news.com.au. “And for a lot of the time I let them slide because I’m not very confrontational.”

But she said eventually the racist comments, particularly by her team leader and “a couple of other people”, got to a point where she didn’t feel comfortable coming to work.

“What percentage are you, you don’t look Aboriginal, is it your mum or your dad’s side, you’re quite pretty for an Aboriginal — just continually questioning my identity,” she said.

Ms Cooper met with her manager and team leader on November 20 to raise her concerns and request the comments be brought up with other staff.

A week later, she filed a formal complaint. The complaint was sent to the board and she was told she would receive a response within 10 business days, and that a third-party investigator would be brought in.

Two days later, her position was terminated.

Ms Cooper was effectively sacked from a domestic violence support organisation two days after filing a formal complaint over racist comments.

Ms Cooper alleges CADA breached its duty of care by failing to provide supervision, negatively affecting her mental health and leading to a medical condition.

On November 29, Ms Cooper received an email from Caboolture Regional Domestic Violence Service president Ross Patching that “after discussions and deliberations”, her contract was being terminated “effective immediately”.

“Whilst negotiations were ongoing with the funding body, we extended your contract,” the attached termination letter said. “We have now been informed that due to funds being made available in the region for another position, the Project is no longer required.

“Please consider this letter as termination of your employment effective immediately and you are not required to attend the office on Thursday, 30 November 2017.”

Ms Cooper said she didn’t know for sure if she was sacked for making the complaint. Her original contract was due to wrap up in October, but a letter from CADA dated November 2 confirmed she was “employed on a fix-term contract” until September 2018.

“All I can say is I filed a complaint, and two days later I was fired,” she said.

On December 14, she received a follow-up email from Mr Patching informing her that the investigation into her complaint had “found that issues raised were unsubstantiated and as such the matter is now finalised”. “No further communication in relation to this matter will be entered into,” he wrote.

Ms Cooper said she was particularly concerned that she was unable to do a handover for any of the families involved in her project, called Breaking Down the Barriers, in which she worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and children in the Caboolture region to link them with child safety, police and other authorities to help them escape high-risk domestic violence situations.

“I’d created some really good working relationships in the community, lots of different organisations had created a lot of wraparound case management situations so the women were well supported,” she said.

“I’m really hoping the women have been picked up and supported by the other organisations so they weren’t just dropped, but there is no identified worker at the organisation [currently].”

Ms Cooper is taking her former employer to the Fair Work Commission. She alleges CADA breached its duty of care by failing to provide supervision, damaging her mental health and resulting in a medical condition.

She says she wasn’t seeking monetary compensation. “My goal is just to create some accountability,” she said. “It’s about asking for cultural awareness training and putting those things in place, to protect whoever goes into that role.”

A conciliation conference was originally scheduled for January 24, but has been pushed back to February 19. A CADA spokesperson said in a statement, “The matter is before the Fair Work Commission and we have no comment at this stage.”

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Originally published as Indigenous domestic violence worker sacked after racism complaint