Before you lodge a complaint with the Board

• Is your situation against the law?
• Can you resolve the complaint yourself?

Before you lodge a complaint with the Board
Is your situation against the law?
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 help you how to sort out the problem yourself, so that you don’t need to write a complaint to us.

• Anti-Discrimination Law

• Self-Help Strategies

• An individual who has been discriminated against, harassed or vilified based on the types of discrimination covered under the Anti-Discrimination Act.
• A group of people who have been discriminated against, harassed or vilified based on the types of discrimination covered under the Anti-Discrimination Act.

If you want to make a complaint on behalf of a child or a person with a disability who cannot make their own complaint, contact the Board for more information.

The person who complains to us is called the complainant.

It is best that you don’t talk about your complaint to anyone who does not need to know. We also ask the person or organisation you have complained about not to talk to anyone who does not need to know either. This gives both sides a better chance of working things out.

Please note that a copy of your complaint and any information you send to the Board will be sent to the person or organisation you are complaining about.

You can write your complaint in any language, or in Braille. If you need help to make a written complaint, you can ask a friend or relative or someone at your local community centre to write down what you want to say and you can sign it.

If this is not possible, you can record your complaint on an audio cassette (make sure that you include the same details that you would have put in a letter or on the complaint form) and send it to the President of the Anti-Discrimination Board. If you do this you must also send us a short covering letter that says:

“I [your name] wish to make a complaint of [insert ground and area, eg sex discrimination in employment] against [insert name of person/organisation] and the details are in the enclosed cassette. [Your signature]”

Below are some tips for writing a complaint letter. These may also be useful if you are using the complaint form.

Anti-Discrimination Board Complaints Form as a Word document

Word document – Complaint Form(78.8 KB)

• your name, address, email address, telephone/TTY/fax number(s) and signature; and
• the name, address, and telephone/fax number(s) of the person(s)/organisation you wish to complain about. If you complain about a particular person employed in a company or organisation, tell us their position as well as their name, work address and phone number (if you can).

• your position or job;
• the correct name and address of your employer (you can get this from your pay slip or pay office - or from the Australian Taxation Office);
• the name and position of your supervisor or boss;
• how long you have been employed there; and
• if there are six or more employees working for your employer.

• For more information about the law - Anti-Discrimination Law

• anyone else who saw or heard the discrimination and is willing to provide details. Ask them to give you a written statement of what they saw or heard;
• a photograph;
• a note you made at the time in your diary or on a piece of paper;
• a copy of any poster, notice, letter or anything else you feel is unfair to you;
• a copy of anything that shows how someone else in a similar position to you has been treated differently to the way you were treated; or
• anything else that supports what you say, eg emails or letters.

• someone who saw or heard the discrimination happening to you;
• someone who you confided in regularly about the discrimination;
• someone who experienced the same type of discrimination as you (eg, another person who was sexually harassed by the same person).

• you are about to lose your job,
• you are about to be evicted from your accommodation,
• the discrimination is of a very serious nature and is still happening,
• you have serious health problems,
• the respondent you are complaining about is about to go out of business,
• there is something the Board can do quickly to stop the unfair treatment happening.

You may ask for any reasonable solution to resolve the unfair treatment you received, such as:

• getting your job back — or a transfer, promotion, or extra training at work;
• getting whatever you were previously refused — for example, accommodation, a loan if you applied for one, admission to a course, and so on;
• an apology;
• changes to policies and procedures to make sure the discrimination does not happen again to anyone else, for example introducing an equal opportunity policy in the workplace;
• education programs in the workplace or organisation involved, so that everyone there, including managers, knows what discrimination is, how to prevent it, and what to do if it happens to them or to anyone else;
• compensation (money) paid for any money you have lost (for example, wages), or for damages or hurt feelings;
• donation to a charity of your choice; or
• anything else that might need to be done to make up for the unfair treatment.