‘Great waste of time and money’: Birthday GIF drama exposed by commission

A Queensland industrial relations commissioner has criticised the time and money spent investigating a complaint about a GIF posted to a group chat – and the complaints that followed about the investigation.

After considering the “great volumes of submissions” filed in the case, Commissioner John Dwyer said the fact the matter made it to him demonstrated the problems in the Queensland public service.

Queensland industrial relations commissioner John Dwyer has criticised a complaint about a public servant’s birthday message.Credit: Stocksy

“It is regrettable that a controversy surrounding a single (post) containing a birthday message has been able to consume countless public sector working hours, thousands of taxpayer dollars in lost productivity and fees for the investigation and now, many hours of the limited and valuable resources of this commission,” Dwyer wrote.

“It is a testament to the inefficiencies created by the layers of policies and directives in which the public service is mired that this great waste of time and money has been able to occur.”

Giving the background to the case, Dwyer explained how a three-member team in the Electoral Commission of Queensland received a new supervisor in February 2022.

In the months that followed, one of the staff, a female academic of Asian descent, lodged an application for workers’ compensation at least partly due to the conduct of the supervisor.

In October of that year, another woman in the team posted two GIFs in their Microsoft Teams chat – one a cupcake and one a calendar with a message saying ‘A birthday is like a new year’ – to mark the academic’s birthday.

Shortly after, the supervisor posted a happy birthday message of his own, with a GIF of an orangutan dancing.

The woman was offended by the GIF, and, seemingly concerned for the academic, complained to human resources.

Dissatisfied with how human resources handled the matter, the woman then lodged an official grievance, saying she was distressed, shocked and deeply offended by the GIF.

“The animated graphic that was attached to the birthday greeting demonstrated objectionable behaviour, including unacceptable direct and indirect racist and sexual innuendo overtones,” the woman wrote, before criticising human resources for how it was handled.

While the academic never lodged a formal complaint, ECQ was required to engage an independent investigator to interview all those involved.

The independent investigator found the woman had no case, which ECQ accepted. The woman then sought an internal review.

Electoral Commissioner Pat Vidgen conducted the internal review and came to the same conclusion, albeit in greater detail, prompting the woman to appeal to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in April.

In his decision, Dwyer noted the woman was told early on that the commission “did not consider the GIF to be offensive for the reasons alleged or at all” but she persevered with the appeal.

Dwyer concluded that there was nothing to suggest the orangutan was chosen to make a racial slur, and the dancing, at worst, could only be considered “mildly risque to more conservative individuals”.

The commission was not privy to the workers’ compensation complaint but Dwyer said the woman did not make any connection to her complaint.

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