A former staff member of Cricket Australia has claimed that she was fired for a series of tweets that called for a reform on abortion rights in Australia.
As Fairfax reports, Angela Williamson was employed as a manager of public policy and government relations at Cricket Australia until last month, when one of her tweets landed her in hot water.
The offending tweet, which was sent out on June 14th, was heavily critical of the Tasmanian government’s decision to reject a proposal to provide abortions in public hospitals. Just days after the tweet was sent out, Williamson was called to a meeting to discuss her employment, before being terminated at the end of June.
As both Fairfax and The Guardian note, Williamson began using her Twitter account to speak out for abortion rights in Australia after being forced to travel from Tasmania to Victoria to seek out her own pregnancy termination after being unable to obtain such a procedure in her home state.
“For speaking up, I lost my job with Cricket Australia,” Williamson explained to the Sydney Morning Herald. “I was told the tweet had damaged my relationship with government.”
“I was in shock trying to understand the situation I’d found myself in, and how publicly expressing my political opinion in a tweet had led to this situation at work. I’m still in shock.”
“I’m not a victim. I’m not seeking pity. And I’m not going to be quiet about reproductive health and surgical terminations,” she continued. “I should not have had to lose my job to deliver the change. Abortion is legal in Tasmania. But that system is broken and it made me feel ashamed.”
Following Williamson’s trip to Victoria, she was also the subject of an online bullying campaign orchestrated by a then-senior staffer to Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman. The staffer in question supposedly ran a fake social media account as a means to harass already vulnerable women by sharing news of their procedures with their employers. While the damage was already done, this staffer left her position after being exposed by the ABC.
https://twitter.com/kfarouque/status/1023722980189167616
Angela Williamson’s lawyer, Kamal Farouque, notes that his client’s tweet, which referred to the Tasmanian government’s decision as “irresponsible” and “reckless”, was in no way grounds for dismissal.
“We’re alleging that she was terminated because of her political opinions, which she expressed in that tweet and other tweets,” Farouque said.
“The Fair Work Act says you can’t be sacked for your political opinion. That’s what Angela did, she expressed her political opinion in her tweet, and then she subsequently found herself being sacked from her job at Cricket Australia.
“It seems extraordinary that someone would be sacked from their job in those circumstances. Her job at Cricket Australia had nothing to do with the public debate around access to reproductive health services in Tasmania.”
A hearing is set to take place before the Fair Work Commission on August 17th.
