This is hugely good news if, like me, you are prone to lengthy outbursts about aliens in the workplace: a child protection worker in NSW has been handed a $20,000 payout after being asked to take sick leave because she expressed support for a number of conspiracy theories.
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As The Australian reported back in July, Jennifer Stefenac was asked to take the leave by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services in June of 2016, after two coworkers to whom she had spoken “animatedly” about theories regarding fallen angels, flat earth, and the Large Hadron Collider came to the conclusion that she was mentally unstable and reported it to their manager.
According to News.com.au, Stefenac was told that she was being told to stay home to “ensure the agency’s duty of care to [Stefenac], other employees and clients is upheld“. She was told only to return once she had been cleared by a GP, which she was, later that month. Her GP said she wasn’t mentally unwell, just talking about stuff that interested her:
She stated that all the topics she was discussing were related to her leisure time reading and topics of interest she found on the internet. She denied any strong beliefs attached to the topics of discussion.
A conclusion that the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal agreed with:
Based on the assessment of Ms Stefanac conducted by Dr Samarasinghe, which we did not understand the Department to be challenging, we find that the discussion of conspiracy theories was not symptomatic of any mental illness.
The tribunal found that the Department of Family and Community Services discriminated against Stefenac “on the ground of assumed mental illness” and ordered the department to pay her $20,000.
