CV NEWS FEED // Christian pro-life advocate and law professor Dr Joanna Howe has won the anti-bullying case she brought against her employers at the University of Adelaide after it attempted to halt her pro-life research efforts.
“I am delighted to share with you the news that I have won my case against the University of Adelaide through the conciliation process at the Fair Work Commission!” Howe announced on social media, according to an Aug. 12 Vision report.
“This is the outcome I wanted: the lifting of the unfair corrective actions imposed upon me by my employer,” Howe said in response to her win:
This is an important victory for academic freedom and free speech, but it’s a fight I never should have had to take on. No one should have to go through what I have been through just to fight for the freedom to research and speak. It should not have taken me six months … and nearly $100,000 in legal costs to clear my name.
“Since 2019 I have endured six workplace investigations because of my advocacy and research on abortion and in every investigation I have been cleared of misconduct,”
Howe stated that she had endured six separate workplace investigations since 2019 regarding her pro-life research. She was found innocent of misconduct in each case, including the most recent investigation launched at the beginning of the year, which determined she was innocent of any breach in the Australian Code for Responsible Research.
“Yet,” Howe continued, “the university saw fit to impose corrective actions on me: instructing me to do a Research Integrity Course so that I could learn how to do ‘unbiased’ research and mandating a performance chat with my line manager.”
Howe refused the corrections and launched four separate appeals within the University, which were all rejected. Eventually, she was able to win her case through an external appeals process of conciliation through the Australian government’s Fair Work Commission.
In Howe’s settlement with the University, all previously imposed corrective measures have been lifted. The two parties further agreed on a more streamlined process regarding the investigation of complaints moving forward.
“The University of Adelaide supports academic freedom, as reflected in its Enterprise Agreement 2023–2025 and its Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom Policy,” the text of the settlement reads, according to Vision.
