ATO employee compensated for antisemitic abuse
A Melbourne man who claimed he was the victim of racial abuse at the ATO has won a compensation claim.
Stephen Strelecky was an employee at the Box Hill offices of the Australian Taxation Office in 2009 when he claimed a colleague hurled antisemitic abuse at him.
The ATO initially found no evidence to support his claim the comments had been made, according to a report in Friday’s Herald Sun newspaper.
But in August 2010 a second investigation found it “most likely” the comments had in fact been made.
Strelecky claimed compensation for stress leave, but was initially rejected.
But an appeal, which described the ATO’s investigation as “flawed, found it “likely” he had been subjected to antisemitism and he was awarded compensation for his “psychological condition.”
