New report warns of a lack of cultural safety for Indigenous employees in Australia
Racism remains entrenched across workplaces in Australia, according to a new report, which found that progress on cultural safety for Indigenous employees has stalled in many organisations.
The Gari Yala 2 (Speak the Truth) study, conducted by the Centre for Indigenous People and Work (CIPW) at the University of Technology Sydney, surveyed more than 1,100 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander workers across Australia.
It revealed that 79% of employees now feel safe to share their identity, up from the 72% recorded in the first Gari Yala study in 2020.
It also found that seven in nine forms of racism have eased slightly in many organisations.
Stalled progress on safety
However, these small gains are offset by other issues such as 53% of Indigenous employees saying they still experience inappropriate race-based comments and assumptions at work.
It also revealed that key markers of racism in the workplace showed no progress over the past five years. These markers include:
- Unfair treatment (38%)
- High cultural load (64%)
Overall, 25% of employees said they are in a culturally unsafe workplace, while 35% are only in moderately safe working environments.
"Although, there has been some progress since our first report in 2020, racism and lack of cultural safety remain widespread," said CIPW director Nareen Young in a statement.
"The increasing numbers of our mob in work where they had previously been excluded from employment market participation has been a great achievement, but these workplaces need to be made safe. No one should have to suffer vilification and ridicule as part of their conditions of employment."
Are employers being performative?
The report noted that the most common anti-racism initiative at work was recognising Indigenous dates of significance, with 68% of Indigenous workers saying their organisation did this.
However, Young noted that this effort is less strongly associated with low racism levels than those that actually focus on internal policies and practices.
According to the findings, 63% of the respondents are in workplaces without anti-discrimination training. Another 69% belong to organisations without a racism complaint procedure.
"This finding suggests that organisations may be more comfortable investing in actions that signal commitment, than in the harder work of changing internal systems, accountability, and everyday workplace culture," Young said.
The professor warned that this current rate of progress means it would take another 118 years for Indigenous Australian employees to never hear racial slurs and jokes at work.
"Gari Yala found that racism is widespread but not inevitable. The research also shows that workplaces with measures like a complaints procedure and appropriate training have lower levels of racism," Young said.
"We urge employers to take heed of the findings and act because we shouldn't have to wait a century to rid our workplaces of racism."
