Sydney Uni ‘unsafe’ for Jewish staff: workplace claim

Jewish staff and students have filed a workplace claim against the University of Sydney seeking remedies for “psychosocial harm” from antisemitism on campus.

The complaint to SafeWork NSW says Jewish employees have been subject to a “vicious racist campaign” which breaches the university’s responsibility to provide a safe working environment.

The group of 23 staff and students is seeking consequences “up to and including criminal charges” against vice-chancellor Mark Scott for his failure to respond to numerous incidents including threats against Jews, violent images, and constant aggression on campus.

Lead complainant Associate Professor Andy Smidt said the university had failed to meet its legal obligations to provide a safe working environment.

“Workplaces have a requirement to make sure that your environment is safe, both physically and psychosocially, if harm is foreseeable. We've been meeting with Mark Scott and emailing and talking to him and various others since about October 10 last year, and we've been alerting him to these dangers for 11 months. So yes, I believe the psychosocial harm was foreseeable.

“We've got to the point where we no longer have trust that they are able to create a psychosocially safe environment. So, we've put it in the hands of SafeWork NSW.”

Smidt said Scott repeatedly cited the university’s obligation to freedom of speech but did not acknowledge an equal obligation to workplace safety.

“We're not saying that there should be no protest on campus. We're saying that it needs to be managed in a way that allows all students and staff to function and do their job and do their learning without this overwhelming sense that I don't want to go to campus today because I know I'm going to be hit with so much unpleasantness.

“We've got testimonials from staff and students who tell us of their mental health impacts. We know that people are struggling. We know that it feels like a toxic environment, and we need the university to do something to make it better.”

She said one possibility was that the university defines a designated area for protests and a designated time for megaphones so that staff and students were not constantly confronted.

Threatening material displayed at University of Sydney

Smidt told The Jewish Independent that she had resigned from the university in February in part due to antisemitism on campus.

“I could not stay in that environment. Even if they'd offered me more money and a promotion I wouldn’t have stayed, because I just felt that the environment was toxic.”

She said the university had failed to respond to her concerns. “I cited antisemitism as my reason [for leaving]. I said I wanted an exit interview. They never followed up.”

Smidt said she knows of at least five Sydney University staff members who have left because of antisemitism and many students who have transferred to other universities.

“The reason I’m doing this is they can’t fire me because I no longer work there. Many of my colleagues are saying, ‘Don't put my name on it. I can't afford to lose this job. I don't want other people in my department knowing I've done this and then bullying me even more.’ People who work there are very scared.”

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students has named Sydney University as one of the worst universities in the country in its response to antisemitism.

Jewish students are holding a rally on Friday calling for the removal of Scott because of his failure to deal with antisemitism on campus.

The University bowed to pro-Palestine protesters in June, when it agreed to allow Muslim students right to review the University’s investments and defence and security-related research activities, in return for disbanding their encampment.

Student activity has also been virulently anti-Israel with a student meeting refusing to condemn October 7 and called for “one Palestinian state”.

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