Dr. Joanna Howe, a Christian pro-life advocate and law professor in Australia, 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,” she announced on social media. “This is the outcome I wanted: the lifting of the unfair corrective actions imposed upon me by my employer.
“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.”
Howe said 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 of the Australian Code for Responsible Research.
“Yet 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,” she said.
Howe refused the corrections and launched four separate appeals within the university that 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 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,” settlement said.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice