Guarantee of Service
 Why is there an Anti-Discrimination Board?
What do we do?
How can the Board help me?
How will the Board’s staff treat me?
What can I expect from each of your services?
What if I want to complain or make a suggestion about any of your services?
ADB Guarantee of Service 2008 (pdf) 72Kb
Why is there an Anti-Discrimination Board?
The Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW was set up in 1977 under a NSW law, the Anti-Discrimination Act. The Board is an independent statutory body.What do we do?
We administer the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act. Approximately 35 staff work for the Board. It is their job to:
- inform and educate the people of New South Wales, employers, and service providers about their rights and responsibilities under anti-discrimination law
- help resolve individual complaints of discrimination, harassment or vilification.
- let the NSW government know when the anti-discrimination law needs changing.
How can the Board help me?
The Board provides the following main services:
- general enquiry service and Employers’ Advisory Service
- discrimination complaints service
- publications
- talks and training sessions
How will the Board’s staff treat me?
We aim to treat all our clients fairly in a friendly, helpful and efficient way. We aim to meet your needs whenever it is within our power to do so.
What can I expect from each of your services?
General Enquiry Service & Employers’ Advisory Service
The staff on our general enquiry service can help answer any general enquiry about your (or other people’s) rights or responsibilities under NSW anti-discrimination law. They can also give you more information about how the Board works.
If you are an employer, manager, supervisor or other employer representative, you can use our specialist Employers’ Advisory Service for help with any employment-related enquiry to do with discrimination or harassment. For example, we can provide advice on a particular discrimination problem, or on more general personnel policies and procedures.
You can use either of these services by phoning or visiting any of our three offices in Sydney, Wollongong or Newcastle. You can expect accurate, sympathetic, confidential and free advice. You can also write to us. You don’t have to give us your name if you don’t want to.
If you visit us, an officer will see you as soon as possible. You don't need an appointment in the Sydney office. However, as our Newcastle and Wollongong offices are very small, it is best to phone to make an appointment before you visit.Discrimination Complaints Service
If you think you’ve been discriminated against, it’s a good idea to phone our general enquiry service first for advice before you lodge a written complaint with us. This is because first, we may not have the power to handle your complaint — it may be outside the current NSW anti-discrimination law. If this is the case we may be able to refer you to somewhere else that can help. Secondly, we may be able to advise you how to sort out the problem yourself, so that you don’t need to write a complaint to us.
If you want us to help resolve your discrimination complaint, you must generally write us a letter about it, or fill in our complaint form, and mail, fax or bring it in to us. In you letter, you should explain what type of discrimination has happened to you, when and where it happened, and give us your contact address and phone number, and sign and date the letter. You can write this letter in your own language, or in Braille, and we will have it translated at no cost to you.
You can expect us to handle your discrimination complaint confidentially, efficiently, fairly, free of charge and as quickly as possible. If your complaint is urgent (for example, you are about to lose your job or your accommodation) —either phone us, or make sure your letter says ‘urgent’ at the top. We give priority to these types of urgent complaints.
If your complaint appears to be covered by the anti-discrimination law, generally we will try to conciliate it. This means we will help you and the person or organisation you’re complaining about try to reach a private settlement. Most complaints can be settled in this way.
It’s impossible to say exactly how long any complaint will take to settle as this depends on the nature of your complaint and the other people involved. We must give the organisation or person you’re complaining about the chance to explain things from their point of view. This generally takes between 6-12 months. The officer handling your complaint may be able to give you an estimate of how long your particular complaint could take to settle.
Publications
We have a wide range of publications to suit different people’s needs. For example, we have factsheets which explain your rights, and guidelines which explain different groups’ responsibilities under the anti-discrimination law. We also produce a quarterly newsletter Equal Time. We try to make our publications as easy to read and useful as possible.
Some of our publications are free, and you can download these from our website. Anyone who wants any of our printed publications can write, phone or call in at any of our offices. If there is acharge for the publication(s) you want, we will tell you before we send them to you so that you can decide if you still want them.
Talks and training sessions
The Board has an ongoing program of providing training/information sessions to various groups in the community and workplace who need to know about their rights and/or responsibilities under anti-discrimination law. As part of this program, the Board can usually provide speakers and trainers on request. Phone our Education Services Branch at our Sydney Office, or one of our Regional Offices.
What if I want to complain or make a suggestion about any of your services?
We aim to provide the best possible service we can for everyone in NSW. Your feedback is important to us. So, if you have a complaint about any of our services, or any suggestion about how we could better meet your needs, please let us know. Similarly, please let us know when we've provided you with excellent service. That way we will be able to continue to improve. Please make any complaint or comment about our service - by phone or letter - to the President, Stepan Kerkyasharian at our Sydney office.
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