I’ll probably keep telling my story for the rest of my life, partially because it was so traumatic, but also because my voice can help to protect the human rights of other disabled people in Australia.
When a young person is born in Australia, they go to school and are taught that the government is there to protect them. Young Australians are taught things like ”Advance Australia Fair”, we are taught things like the police are there to protect us, the mainstream media has integrity, and would never lie to you. Then, as we grow older, we gradually see cracks in all of these lies, we see obvious inconsistencies in everything that we’ve been told.
But, even though we see cracks in the stories we’ve been told, we still have this belief that when something bad happens to me, the police, the law, a government organization etc will still do the right thing and protect my human rights or at least uphold the laws that these people are sworn to protect.
Then, if you are one of the unlucky Australians amongst us, you suffer from a crime, and no one who’s supposed to protect you, steps in to defend your human rights. At this stage, you think to yourself, maybe, just maybe this was an extraordinary event, you know, maybe the law was on holiday when my problem happened. You think to yourself, if this happens again, everything will be okay, they will protect my rights, then you realize the uncomfortable truth, that Australia is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth and the law only protects the wealthy elite and is in place to destroy the lives of everyone at the bottom.
I Became Disabled While Working Under Gladys Berejiklian
Around 2010 I worked in a low level government job, it was more of a stepping stone to bigger things, well I thought so anyway. It’s doesn’t really matter what specific job I was doing, what happened to me is far more important. Around 2010 I started to get a sore hip, it felt like I pulled a groin or something, then over a few weeks, it go to the point where I was in pain constantly and couldn’t walk more than 50 meters without needing to sit down (chronic pain).
After seeing a few specialists, I discovered that my hip had cartilage worn out, which meant that bone was grinding on bone. This was causing all the pain. The surgeon told me that I needed a full hip replacement and that I was one of the youngest people he had ever seen, who needed this type of surgery because mostly elderly people needed hip replacements.
This was not a record I felt excited about breaking.
Being Disabled At Work in Australia
As soon as I became disabled, I noticed a huge difference in the way I was treated at work, it was as if my opinions no longer mattered, it felt like I was no longer a human anymore. Management, instead of giving me an easier shift to do at work, they, in fact, gave me more difficult tasks to achieve, these tasks were almost impossible to achieve, even for an able-bodied person. I couldn’t help but feel like the boss was trying to make my life so difficult, that I would make a mistake, so they could fire me, or make my life so difficult, that I would quit.
My chronic pain was bad enough, but to deal with the extra pressure from work, was only making everything far worse for me. I couldn’t quit though, I needed to keep working until my scheduled hip replacement, which was one year in the future. The reason why it was one year in the future, was because of the 12 months waiting period private health insurance puts on making a claim. So, I was trapped in a job where the boss was trying to make my life miserable, by trying to fire me or force me to quit for being disabled, also, I was in chronic pain that was so bad, that I couldn’t even walk upstairs without extreme pain.
That 12 month period was hell, but it was only going to get worse.
Australian Unions Are In Bed With Your Boss
I was in a union, and that union knew that I was waiting for a hip replacement, the thing is, they didn’t know exactly what date it was. The reason why I didn’t tell the union what day my surgery was, was because of all the weird things that had been happening at work, I felt that I couldn’t trust anyone, and that was about to be proven correct.
Two weeks before my surgery came around, I was happy that I survived all the harassment from the boss and I was only two weeks away from my major surgery. Keep in mind, having such a huge surgery is no picnic, it’s a scary event for anyone going under the surgical knife. I was about to face yet another huge struggle, dealing with this surgery, and to get there I needed to have my mind relaxed, have everything in order, and be as prepared as possible, but that wasn’t to be, thanks to the corrupt union that was in bed with the boss.
The next day I had one last check-up with the surgeon scheduled in, where he would check the area, give me a medical certificate for 3 months off work, and give me some last instructions for this big and scary surgery I was about to undergo. So, the day before, after finishing work I asked a union delegate how do I lodge this medical certificate, he told me to photocopy it, fill out a form and put it in the box for medical certificates. This union delegate was the only person who knew I was going to the surgeon and that I was preparing for surgery in two weeks.
Disabled Person Fired For No Reason Other Than Being Disabled
The next day, I went to the surgeon, then went to work and handed in my medical certificate.
There was no work for me today, I was told.
Then I was ordered into the boss’s office, where I was fired on the spot and told to get off the premises immediately.
I went into the union delegate’s office to confront the union delegate who I spoke to the night before, and he said to me these exact words. ”you are now a dead employee, the union cannot help you”.
The funny thing here is, he should never had known that I was just fired, because he wasn't in the room when I was fired. Which was evidence that this union delegate was in bed with management.
- Fired without warning
- Fired for no reason, other than being disabled
- Gee, the list goes on and on. This was an abuse of human rights that was so epic in scale, that someone would go to jail if Australia had laws that protected you, but they don’t, Australia is a cancerous, corrupt country.
Gladys Berejiklian Covered Up This Human Rights Violation
Gladys Berejiklian was in charge (the boss) of the CEO of the company I worked for. I arrived at her office in crutches, still in pain, and trying to get my job back. She told me that she was the CEO’s boss in person too. So, I told her my story. She obviously agreed that what had happened was terrible, then said that she would chase it up.
A week later I received a letter that had a bunch of made-up reasons for my dismissal.
That’s it
I went to fair work, they ignored me
I went to the human rights commission, they ”accidentally forgot” to give me the correct advice and ”forgot” about me
You have to understand how corrupt this entire system is, it’s rotten to the core. If the premier can get every organisation to make your human rights disappear, then this country is truly sick to it’s core.
