Microbiologist Michelle Adams said she was one of dozens of staff who had suffered bullying and harassment in recent years at the university and she believed it was an "ingrained culture" at the institution.
University vice-chancellor Nick Saunders said he did not believe bullying or harassment was a problem at the institution.
But he confirmed 57 complaints were investigated last year.
"To my knowledge bullying and harassment is not a major problem at the University of Newcastle in the context of an organisation that employs and teaches 35,000 staff and students," Professor Saunders said.
Dr Adams's case dates back to 2003 when she raised allegations of plagiarism against two fellow academics.
Following the allegation Dr Adams said she was treated like a "leper", frozen out of communication with colleagues, bullied in meetings and the hostility got so bad she was afraid to enter the staffroom.
In a statutory declaration to a Workers Compensation Commission conference last month she detailed being left off important emails, given an hour's notice by email to attend meetings at Ourimbah when she was at the Callaghan campus and feeling isolated.
"In the end I feared going to work and there were times when I would just break down and cry," she said.
"It has gone on for so long that it is hard to remember what life was like before all of this."
The University of Newcastle branch of the National Tertiary Education Union and Newcastle University Student Union launched a major anti-bullying campaign last year.
The unions said there was a "large volume" of cases in which staff and students reported ongoing bullying and harassment on campus.
Education union vice-president Rod Noble said in some cases staff had been forced to leave the university as a result.
"For some people there are fears of retribution and some are simply too afraid to speak out," Mr Noble said.
"People have left as they have felt that was the only way to resolve it."
Several former Newcastle University academics who spoke to The Herald confirmed a "culture of fear" and said if people spoke up they "risked their careers".
Professor Saunders said there was simply no evidence of a culture of bullying.
He said the university's complaints office dealt with 33 formal, or written, cases of harassment and bullying last year that were made by 27 people, with 22 cases upheld against 16 people.
Of them 17 cases related to bullying with 12 cases upheld against six people.
A further 24 informal complaints of harassment were made by 24 people and seven related to bullying. None of the seven informal complaints resulted in an investigation.
Professor Saunders said bullying and harassment was not tolerated and it was clearly against the university's code of conduct.
Punishment ranged from counselling to the university taking action for misconduct.
2 comments:
Australia rewards academic bullies.
Professor Margaret Gardner was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for her "services to tertiary education and industrial relations", but she is in truth a notorious academic bully.
Under her leadership, the University of Queensland - in direct violation of Australian sexual harassment law - did not have any form of sexual harassment induction or training for staff.
Also, in stark contrast to other Australian universities, their sexual harassment policy only directed potential complainants to the state anti-discrimination body, the ADCQ. No mention is made of HREOC.
But what happens when a UQ staff member complains to the ADCQ? Their complaint is mysteriously re-assigned (as I later learned) to a particular staff member, who then dismisses it without cause.
Under Australian law, HREOC can't touch a complaint that has been sumbitted to a state authority. So convinced were they that the ADCQ were wrong, that they broke that law in my case.
A little bit of corruption and UQ successfully avoided any and all obligations to protect their staff from sexual harassment.
It's that easy.
And that's how I, a gay man, lost his career for refusing to date a female student who I had repeatedly complained about to my supervisor when - and I kid you not - she explicitly threatened me in writing (in an email) for refusing to date her. When I continued to refuse to date her, she lodged a malicious (and ridiculous) sexual harassment complaint against me.
What did my employer do? First I immediately instructed to apologise without being told what for.
Then followed a 3 month farcical investigation at the end of which UQ found me guilty by virtue of a completely non-existent confession.
And during the process of this, our dearly awarded Margaret Gardner saw fit to publicly insult me during a workshop. Despite this being witnessed and attested to, she was left in charge of the investigation.
Australia LOVES its bullies.
I agree with this comment. The Australia Day award system seems to be being used to reward Queensland public servants who bully or who 'turn a blind eye' to bullying. Three of the Queensland public servants and one Queensland Teachers' Union officer who were involved in my own workplace bullying complaint have since been given Australia Day awards.
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