By Rachel Drew (Partner) and Rose Sanderson (Associate) of Holding Redlich.
An employer will not automatically be liable for the act of an employee or agent where it is found to be in connection, or in the course of employment. If an employer can establish that it has taken ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure its employee’s do not engage in unlawful conduct, a defence is raised.
In the case of Newchurch v Centreprise Resource Group Pty Ltd, Centreprise’s principal consultant made racially discriminatory comments about Ms Newchurch, including saying to her ‘blacks rely too much on welfare and Government handouts’, Aboriginal people were ‘taking liberties and stretching out the hours to get money’, ‘these days (blacks) are used to lying and cheating the system to get money without wanting to work an honest day in their life’ as well as comments making distinction between ‘urbanised and westernised’ indigenous people and those that were still ‘traditional people out of the bush’. Throughout her employment, Centreprise’s principal referred to Aboriginal people as ‘blacks’.
The employer sought to rely on the ‘reasonable steps’ defence.
This article was first published on the Holding Redlich website and has been reproduced with permission.