Nearly two-thirds of nurses, midwives and care workers from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and/or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background surveyed had been direct victims of racism, a new report by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) has exposed.
Of these, 9% had experienced racism within the past day, 17% in the past week, 29% in the past month, and 45% in the past year. Forms of racism included racial bias (44%), stereotyping (37%), bullying (33%) and verbal abuse/insults (21%).
More than 3,200 NSWNMA members from across all sectors, including public health, private hospitals, and aged care, took part in the 2024 survey, which explored their experiences of racism in the workplace.
The latest report, titled Standing together against racism, found little progress has been made in tackling racism since the NSWMA’s previous survey and subsequent report in 2019.
According to survey findings, 88% of nurses, midwives and care workers who reported an incident of racism at work received no support, while 73% didn’t bother to report it to management due to lack of faith in the system and fear of repercussion. Three in five nurses, midwives and care workers had witnessed racism in their workplaces as a bystander.
NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said the report revealed that systemic racism was rife in the workplace and needed to be collectively addressed moving forward.
“It’s heartbreaking so many of our members are experiencing racism, and this survey highlights the profound impact racial discrimination has had on their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing,” she said.
The report makes eight recommendations, including:
- Prioritising the elimination of institutional racism by implementing policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion
- Policies and training on incident reporting to ensure workers are knowledgeable about and supported to report psychosocial hazards, including racism
- Employers implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of co-designed anti-racism training
- Employers ensuring all staff complete bystander action education
- An anti-racism framework co-designed with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander workers
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Michael Whaites said the survey results sowed urgent improvements were needed to tackle racism in the workplace.
“Employers have a responsibility to create a safe working environment for all employees and employees have an obligation to ensure that they do not contribute to an unsafe workplace through acts of discrimination,” said Mr Whaites.
“It’s alarming how many members said they didn’t receive support after reporting an incident, that their cases were poorly managed, ignored or trivialised. For some respondents that meant leaving their job, or their profession entirely, because of the lack of action to address racial abuse and discrimination.”
In a bid to make meaningful change to mitigating racism and its impacts, the NSWNMA has partnered with the Australian Human Rights Commission to collaborate on improvements to racism education and reporting.
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman said nurses, midwives and care workers deserved to be treated with respect and dignity.
“This report is yet another example of how racism is a public health emergency that must be met with the same urgency and seriousness as any other threat to life. We need the federal and state governments to commit to the health-based recommendations in the National Anti-Racism Framework,” he said.
Read the Standing Together Against Racism report here
