A Sikh student paramedic who challenged Ambulance Victoria over its refusal to allow culturally mandated beards during mask-fit testing says he is “ecstatic” after the service reversed its policy.
Nineteen-year-old Monash University student Prabhjeet Gill lodged a discrimination complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after he was denied a mandatory mask-fit test for clinical placement because he would not shave his beard, which he keeps for religious reasons.
ABC News reported that Gill had asked Ambulance Victoria to use the Singh Thattha technique — a method widely used in hospitals where an elastic band is wrapped over the beard to create a smooth surface for the mask seal — but on the day of his appointment he was told the booking was cancelled and that he must be clean-shaven to proceed.
Gill said he was shocked and disappointed, believing the service had recognised the method. “Just like the turban, the beard is part of our identity,” he told ABC News.
“It’s a belief that we shouldn’t remove any hair from our body, we should leave it the way God created us.”
Although Gill was later granted an individual exemption following media coverage, he felt others in similar situations remained disadvantaged and formally pursued a complaint.
In its response to the commission, as per ABC News, Ambulance Victoria acknowledged it had failed to adopt the method earlier and confirmed it had now introduced a new fit-testing pathway using the Singh Thattha technique for staff and students who keep beards for religious, cultural or medical reasons.
A spokesperson told ABC News that the updated process would allow paramedics to meet national infection control standards while respecting individual identity, noting that staff were being trained to carry out the procedure.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill welcomed the change and praised Gill for his persistence, calling his advocacy “incredibly brave”. He told ABC News that the policy update finally removed a double standard in which restrictions had eased for existing staff but not for new recruits.
For Gill, who has hoped to become a paramedic since childhood and now serves as a student representative at Monash while working as a fraud analyst at Telstra, the decision offers relief but not celebration. “Nobody should ever have to fight a state organisation to wear their religious identity,” he told ABC News.
“So I wish it was a win, but at the end of the day, it was just about getting our rights back.”
On LinkedIn, he thanked the Victorian Ambulance Union and Monash Paramedicine for their support, saying he hoped no future paramedic would face the same barrier.
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