{"id":20339,"date":"2025-06-27T23:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20339\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T23:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:38:10","slug":"melbourne-street-sweeper-shaun-turner-wins-unfair-dismissal-case-over-acknowledgement-of-country-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20339\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne street sweeper Shaun Turner wins unfair dismissal case over Acknowledgement of Country comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Melbourne<\/a> street sweeper has successfully challenged his dismissal after the Fair Work Commission (FWC) found it was unfair to sack him for objecting to an Acknowledgement of Country.<\/p>\n

Shaun Turner had been a full-time sweeper driver in the City Works department at Darebin City Council before he was dismissed on June 3, 2024.<\/p>\n

The dismissal followed a toolbox meeting of the street cleaning team on April 17, 2024, where an Acknowledgement of Country was delivered for the first time at such a gathering.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

An Acknowledgement of Country is typically offered at the start of meetings, speeches or events, to show respect for traditional owners and recognise the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country.<\/p>\n

Turner questioned the practice, saying: \u201cIf we need to be thanking anyone, it\u2019s the people who have worn the uniform and fought for our country to keep us free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council officers launched an investigation on May 14 to determine whether Turner should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

At a subsequent meeting, the council\u2019s chief people officer, Yvette Fuller, said the expectation was that an Acknowledgement of Country should be given before all formal meetings.<\/p>\n

Turner replied: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t we do it in this meeting then?\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cIt is getting out of hand and people are losing it, it is now being done at the opening of a postage stamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to be welcomed into my own country.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he would continue to disrupt an Acknowledgement of Country, Turner said: \u201cI won\u2019t disrupt it but I want to be asked if I would like you to give me the courtesy to step outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council claimed Turner had said, \u201cThe Acknowledgement of Country is not necessary\u201d, and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people \u201cdo not deserve an acknowledgment at the start of meetings\u201d.<\/p>\n

His tone was described as \u201cdisrespectful, sarcastic and aggressive\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was also accused of making derogatory remarks about a colleague and inappropriately discussing that colleague\u2019s employment details in a group setting.<\/p>\n

As a result, Turner was issued with a termination letter citing \u201cserious misconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the FWC found these did not constitute a valid reason for dismissal.<\/p>\n

FWC Deputy President William Clancy said Turner\u2019s comments were not made in the tone or manner alleged by the council.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not persuaded that Mr Turner said either \u2018The Acknowledgement of Country is not necessary\u2019 or that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders \u2018do not deserve an acknowledgment at the start of meetings,\u201d Clancy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am satisfied, however, that Mr Turner made a comment to the effect that if anyone was to be acknowledged or thanked at a toolbox meeting, it should be the servicemen and women who had fought for this country (i.e. Australia) but I do not consider that expressing such an opinion constitutes a valid reason for dismissal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI regard Mr Turner\u2019s various comments as having been a spontaneous expression of his opinion that Acknowledgements of Country are appropriate on special occasions but one was not necessary at the toolbox meeting.<\/p>\n

The absence of a valid reason for dismissal led Clancy to conclude that Turner\u2019s sacking was unfair and described it as \u201charsh, unjust or unreasonable\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his testimony to the FWC, Turner said he believed he was \u201cbeing made out to be a racist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to say that I was brought up on Broadmeadows. I come from a family of eight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy best friends out at Broadmeadows happen to be Aboriginals, one of them marrying my sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a niece and great-niece and nephews who are all Aboriginals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner is now seeking reinstatement, with a final decision on that and any remedy yet to be made.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne street sweeper has successfully challenged his dismissal after the Fair Work Commission (FWC) found it was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,64,18929,50,16571,18930],"class_list":{"0":"post-20339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-melbourne","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-vic-news","13":"tag-workplace-matters"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114757966621417535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}