Officeworks staff member refuses to laminate AJN content
A Jewish man unwilling to be named was refused service by an Officeworks staff member because she supports “Free Palestine”.
The incident happened at the company’s store in Elsternwick in Melbourne.
Liberal Victorian state MP David Southwick posted the offensive dialogue between the customer and the staff member who refused to laminate articles in the Australian Jewish News.
David Southwick posted on X:
This is disgraceful.
I’ll be writing to @officeworks immediately, because this appalling behaviour cannot continue. pic.twitter.com/Q0aXp3Y67I
— David Southwick MP (@SouthwickMP) August 1, 2024
Southwick : Frankly, this behaviour is simply appalling.
In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 atrocities, Australia’s Jewish community has been forced to endure the worst levels of antisemitism in living memory. Now, we have seen one of your employees refuse service, simply because a customer sought to laminate a
page from Australia’s only national Jewish community newspaper.
Inflammatory, hurtful, and unnecessary displays like this only further marginalise, isolate, and harm our Jewish community. They worsen the division that is already present in our community and put our state’s proud multiculturalism at risk.
The fact that this happened on Glen Huntly Road, Elsternwick – which sits in the heart of
Melbourne’s Jewish community – has only added insult to injury.
I have also been made aware that the individual impacted privately reached out to Officeworks to remedy the situation and find an appropriate way forward.
However, it is my understanding that your organisation refused to take any substantive action whatsoever.
In response to his valid concerns about potential breaches of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, all your organisation offered him was a $100 voucher and a statement indicating Officeworks was investigating the situation
Officeworks must now publicly apologise to the individual involved, publicly apologise to the Jewish community, provide staff at the store with proper antisemitism education programs, and guarantee that this behaviour will never happen again.
Officeworks managing director Sarah Hunter told J-Wire: “We learned of the incident in March 2024. We were deeply disappointed that it occurred and confirm that the customers job should have been performed by the team member.
We confirm that we have taken this matter extremely seriously investigated the matter at the time and took appropriate disciplinary action. The views expressed by the team member are not Officeworks’ views.
At Officeworks, we do not discriminate against our customers on the basis of political views, religious beliefs, gender, sexuality or race.”
We provide ongoing training and education to our team members so that they understand the importance of treating all of our customers with respect and dignity. Arising out of this incident relevant team members received education through the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
We sincerely regret that this incident occurred and for the distress caused to the customer.”
Gareth Narunsky, Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Jewish News, said, “We are shocked to hear that an employee at Officeworks Elsternwick, in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, refused to laminate a page from our newspaper.
The AJN represents a broad range of Australian Jews with diverse opinions. We run plenty of content critical of Israeli policies or actions when appropriate. We also staunchly uphold Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself,” Narunsky said.
To deny a customer who simply wants to laminate an article from our publication reeks of ignorance and antisemitism.
Had the employee looked closer, she would have seen that the article in question was about a group of Australians who travelled to Israel to help and support the victims of the heinous Hamas-led attack on October 7, when more Jews were killed in one day than at any time since the Holocaust,” Narunsky continued.
He added:“History has shown us that this kind of bloodshed is always where antisemitism invariably leads.”
