University of Sydney failed to protect Jews from antisemitism
The university's failures 'placed at risk the psychosocial health and safety of Jewish workers and students'
SafeWork NSW has found the University of Sydney (USYD) failed to protect Jewish workers and students from antisemitism for 11 months, creating a workplace of “fear” and “anxiousness”, but has declined to pursue a full investigation.
A SafeWork inspector’s report, released under freedom of information laws, concluded the university “failed to take reasonable actions to manage, reduce and eliminate active antisemitic conduct on campus” despite having the authority to do so.
The report found Jewish workers and students “experienced antisemitism daily whilst on campus” and that the university’s failures “placed at risk the psychosocial health and safety of Jewish workers and students”.
Twenty-three Jewish employees and staff filed a workplace claim against university management for “psychosocial harm” in September last year.
The SafeWork inspector visited the campus twice and found “antisemitic campus rallies, demonstrations, meetings, graffiti, flyers, social media and Palestinian encampment continued unabated” until adverse media scrutiny emerged in June 2024.
The report stated the university “repeatedly failed to act in response to incident reports about antisemitism on campus” and “did not adequately respond to complaints and concerns from Jewish workers and students”.
It found the university “always had the authority to eliminate antisemitism on campus” through its Campus Access Rule 2009 but “failed to enforce its own policy”.
The report also criticised the university’s campus security service, which “failed to take reasonable and proportionate actions to manage, reduce and eliminate antisemitism on campus”.
NSW Police raised concerns about a Palestinian encampment and requested action to remove it, but “the university took no action to remove the Palestinian encampment for about two months”, according to the report.
The inspector found the university only acted “after about 11 months” due to “the involvement of SafeWork, political developments, adverse media focus”.
Despite the inspector’s preliminary report in February recommending SafeWork carry out a full investigation, stating there was “no doubt an investigation by SafeWork NSW will identify contraventions of law”, the regulator’s decision-making panel declined to proceed.
In an email to complainant Andy Smidt on 18 March, SafeWork team coordinator John Whatman said the matter would not proceed to full investigation but that SafeWork would monitor the university’s compliance and issue a notice under section 155 of the Act.
USYD Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost Annamarie Jagose said despite the significant challenges, the university “at all times took a strong stance against antisemitism and decisive action to stand firmly” against hate in all forms.
“We’ve implemented new measures and complaints related to antisemitism have declined substantially over the last 12 months – but we know even a single complaint is one too many,” Jagose said.
“We’ve cooperated fully with SafeWork NSW’s enquiries and appreciate the care they’ve taken in examining this matter, as well as the consideration they’ve given to activities on campus since 7 October 2023 and how we’ve managed resulting events and risks.”
A spokesperson for SafeWork NSW said the regulator had met the University of Sydney and the two complainants to advise them of its decision not to progress to a full investigation.
“Following enquiries with the University of Sydney, SafeWork NSW inspectors assessed adequate systems relating to the psychological risk of workers were in place,” the spokesperson said. “SafeWork NSW’s Independent Decision Making Panel assessed whether the matter should progress to a full investigation, given the University of Sydney had demonstrated compliant behaviours.”
The AJN understands the university is reforming its complaints management processes, and is continuing to implement the recommendations of a review conducted last year by barrister Bruce Hodgkinson last year.
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