An ABC-commissioned review, performed by a team led by Indigenous lawyer Dr Terri Janke, found only one of the 120 current and former staff spoken to by the team had not personally experienced racism within the organisation.
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The review found that supervisors at the ABC need better training on meeting the psychosocial safety obligations and should be assessed on compliance – “problematic” management action is letting down workers by exposing them to racism in the workplace.
First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) workers reported being exposed to overt racist behaviours as well as more covert forms of racism, with the systems and processes currently in place not adequately responding to instances of racism or supporting the staff affected by it.
“The ABC has legal obligations to make sure staff feel safe, and that the workplace is free from psychosocial hazards,” the reviewers stated in their report, released this week.
“Racism, and its impact on all staff, are a significant psychosocial hazard that employers need to address in the workplace," the report says.
"While First Nations and CALD staff generally feel support from senior leadership, cultural competence and support does not filter down the management structures, with middle managers typically reported as being unsupportive and/or problematic," it says.
First Nations and CALD participants in the review also reported poor psychological safety in the workplace, and a lack of diversity in middle management levels, senior levels and the board. The departure of diverse staff due to unsupportive or bully managers does not seem to have raise ‘red flags’ to higher management.
Despite raising informal and formal complaints about problematic managers, at times there seem to have been no consequences with the managers continuing to hold managerial roles in the organisation. Participants in the review said that when they complained about racism to their direct managers, often the issue did not progress further, making the workplace "uncomfortable and unsafe".
The review also shows that many felt their supervisors did not have the appropriate skills to deal with these issues, and supervisors sometimes asked subordinates for guidance on how they should handle a complaint.
The reviewers make 15 recommendations, including the following:
- To improve diverse representation in ABC management and leadership".
- Organisation leadership, middle management and all supervisors to be trained on their obligations to ensure that the workplace is free from racism and other psychosocial hazards.
- All supervisors to be assessed through a 360-degree feedback process on how they are meeting their psychosocial obligations.
- A psychosocial risk approach to be implemented that includes racism being recorded as a workplace hazard to be dealt with effectively in accordance with WHS obligations, including by ABC leadership.
- A risk matrix reported to the board at least quarterly.
- Increase and enhance organisation-wide education and training, including implementing a suite of programs targeted at improving psychosocial safety broadly, such as mental health first aid, trauma-informed practice, vicarious trauma training, coaching around conflict and difficult conversations, and leadership training and coaching.
Read more: An independent report has found evidence of 'systemic' racism at the ABC | SBS NITV
