Customer says it’s not enough
A video of the second exchange in which she refused to laminate an article in The AJN went viral on social media late last week.
The managing director of Officeworks, Sarah Hunter, has apologised to the Jewish community over a now infamous incident in which a visibly Jewish man was refused service.
But the customer has rejected the apology, saying he is still going ahead with action against the company at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The incident in March saw a staff member decline a request to laminate an article in The Australian Jewish News because she was “pro-Palestine”.
Before that incident, the 21-year-old staffer had been involved in a separate incident involving a Jewish woman who was told in January she could not print pictures in the size she wanted “because the Jews had used all the paper”.
A video of the second exchange in which she refused to laminate an article in The AJN went viral on social media late last week.
Hunter directly addressed the Jewish community, telling The AJN, “I’m sorry that this happened in our store, I want you to feel safe. We want to be part of the community in which we live and work and we are going to use this as a moment to continue to improve education around antisemitism and discrimination. It is not acceptable in our store”.
She rejected the idea that the company didn’t take the incident seriously at the time.
“When we received the letter and the customer complaint in March, we investigated it all within 48 hours and responded back with an apology to the customer, as well as addressing the other concerns that they had raised in their letter,” she said.
Hunter said the staff member was given a final warning and transferred to another store and also visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
“And as a result of that, did a complete 180 in their understanding of the impact that they had had, the impact on the Jewish community and how disrespectful and inappropriate that their behaviour was and how wrong it was,” she said.
But the customer who was refused service – who wishes to remain anonymous – said the response isn’t enough.
The man said the discussion of anti-discrimination training in the interview between The AJN and Hunter is the first time any form of training concerning antisemitism has been raised.
“I’m disappointed that it has required intense media pressure for this obvious step to occur, which I’ve been calling for on Officeworks since the incident happened. It’s obvious that nothing would have happened if not for the public outcry,” he said.
Hunter has been in contact with Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and they are going to work together to create a training session for company leaders to educate them around antisemitism and discrimination.
The AJN understands this training will be extended to senior people across the Wesfarmers group, which owns several other major Australian businesses as well as Officeworks.
The government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, said she expects to take a role in this education.
“I have been invited to speak to Wesfarmers more generally about business education in this context and what could be rolled out. And if ECAJ have the resources, I think that would be wonderful,” she said.
Segal believes this incident provides an opportunity to think about how people can be better educated.
“Young people, in particular, who don’t understand the history of antisemitism, the impact that sort of denial of service might have had in Germany and how it’s really not the way to behave in today’s society in Australia,” she said.
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