Notice After Notice — Part 7: Obstruction is against the law! - March 2022

28 March 2022

 

“I’m frightened”: The email to Professor Hayden Ramsay, Cheryl Han and Chris Minns

By 28 March 2022, I had stopped believing anyone was going to voluntarily do the right thing.

But I still kept asking.

I kept pleading.

I kept documenting.

This email was sent to:

• Professor Hayden Ramsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Ethics) at the University;
• Chris Minns, Member for Kogarah and later Premier of New South Wales; and
• Cheryl Han from the Kogarah electorate office.

I was reporting that I had effectively been cut off from proper reporting pathways inside my own workplace.

I wrote that a WHS executive staff member had blocked my access to Service Central and other communication channels, preventing me from reporting what I described as ongoing misconduct by HR executives, the return-to-work coordinator, and WHS management.  

Regarding obstruction, see also http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2025/04/blocking-mobbing-and-truth-2020.html and http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2025/04/employment-lawyer-3-part-5-unacceptable.html

I explained that I could not even get through to Professor Hayden Ramsay’s office directly.

I described having to hide my phone number simply to leave a voicemail with his executive officer after repeated failures to get through normally.  

That is what this had become.

Not workplace support.

Not injury management.

Not safety.

A worker trying to find any remaining pathway to be heard.

Weeks earlier, on 24 February 2022, I had already sent a message to ACU’s “Respect. Now. Always.” crisis number because I no longer knew where else to report what was happening. See http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2026/05/respect-now-always-except-when-i-needed.html 

That service appeared primarily intended for sexual assault and harassment matters involving students. 

But I wrote:

“Where else was I able to formally report this reckless and wilful misconduct…?”  

I was describing ongoing psychological harm, financial harm, isolation, and fear.

At the same time, I was still asking for the basics required under workplace and workers compensation law:

• implementation of my injury management plan;
• contact with my GP;
• proper return-to-work coordination;
• restoration of entitlements; and
• returning to my job at the Strathfield campus library.  

I wrote that my GP was still waiting to be contacted to begin developing a return-to-work plan aligned with the agreed injury management plan.  

That alone should never have been happening this far into a workers compensation process.

Why I Was Contacting My Elected Representative

From October 2021, the reason I was reaching out to my elected representative was because I had already escalated the matter to the authorities that were supposed to protect workers.

I had reported the workplace health and safety issues.

I had reported the ongoing harm.

I had escalated the matter to SafeWork NSW, the regulator responsible for enforcing workplace health and safety laws.

I had also escalated the conduct of the insurer to SIRA NSW, the regulator responsible for overseeing the workers compensation scheme.

Yet the situation continued.

The injury management plan remained unimplemented.

My treating doctor was still waiting to be contacted.

The return-to-work process that was supposed to support recovery had not commenced.

My entitlements remained withheld.

The financial harm continued to escalate.

The psychological harm continued to escalate.

And the very systems that were supposed to provide protection appeared unwilling to intervene.

That is why I sought help from my local Member of Parliament, Chris Minns, because there had been a serious failure of regulatory oversight.

I was asking for help because the regulators themselves had become part of the problem.

After years of trying to resolve the situation through the proper channels, I was left doing something no injured worker should have to do:

Begging an elected representative to help ensure that workplace safety laws and workers compensation obligations were actually enforced by the regulators SafeWork NSW and SIRA NSW. 

Attached to that same email was a SafeWork NSW poster explaining what should happen when a worker is injured.

The contrast is impossible to ignore.

 

According to the poster:

1. Tell your employer.
2. See your doctor.
3. Recover at work.

I had already done those things.

What I was still waiting for was the system to do its part.

I also warned Professor Ramsay that my family may be resubmitting their formal complaint after what I described as harassment, privacy breaches, and distortion of facts involving HR executives.  

I specifically asked that it not be pushed back through the same internal processes again.

Because by then, trust in those processes had collapsed. See http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2025/07/intimidating-family-as-community.html

And near the end of the email, I wrote something that still stays with me:

“I’m frightened, so please take these complaints seriously, before it’s too late.”  

I attached medical documentation.

I attached signed consent forms authorising contact with my treating professionals.

I attached evidence showing ongoing trauma linked to workplace victimisation.  

I also wrote:

“I’ve exhausted every avenue for help to assert my employee and human rights.”  

And still, nothing meaningful changed.

This was not a failure of notice.

It was notice after notice after notice.

Sent to university leadership.

Sent to elected representatives.

Sent while I was explicitly stating I was frightened and traumatised.

And still, the silence continued.

And so did the institutionalised wage theft…

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Document 298. 

A reminder of what got me here: 

http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2025/05/i-advise-you-make-workers-compensation.html

Notice After Notice — Part 6 : Email to Chris Minns’ Kogarah Electorate Office - March 2022

24 March 2022

By late March 2022, something had changed.

In the beginning, I had still believed people would listen if I explained things clearly enough. I believed that if those in positions of authority understood the seriousness of what was happening, there would be intervention, humanity, and accountability.

At first, the responses coming from the Kogarah electorate office had seemed respectful and even hopeful. There was at least the impression that someone was listening.

But by 24 March 2022, that feeling had almost disappeared.

The silence had become heavier.

The avoidance more obvious.

And the consequences in my life were becoming critical.

That morning, I emailed Cheryl Han from the Kogarah electorate office again.  

I was no longer casually requesting assistance from my elected representative, Chris Minns.

I was asking for an urgent meeting because my situation was deteriorating and I did not know how much longer I could hold everything together on my own.

I wrote:

“My request for a meeting with Chris is urgent. Please put me on the calendar for the closest availability and let me know the timeslot.”  

By that stage, I had already spent years trying to navigate processes properly.

I had reported concerns.

I had attempted internal resolution.

I had engaged regulators.

I had continued trying to communicate respectfully, despite the escalating harm.

But instead of resolution, I experienced delay, exclusion, silence and procedural avoidance, especially from SafeWork NSW and SIRA NSW. 

The final sentence in that short email captured where I had emotionally arrived:

“It’s human cruelty.”  

There comes a point where prolonged neglect stops feeling “administrative” and starts feeling deeply inhuman.

The same day, I also wrote to Professor Hayden Ramsay, who at the time was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Ethics) at the University.

I told him plainly that the “ongoing neglect and exclusion” was causing me to “fall into depression.”  

I described what was happening as:

“psychological, emotional and financial abuse.”  

And that was the reality.

By then, this was no longer simply a dispute about workplace processes or workers compensation administration.

The harm had spread into every part of my life.

I was trying to secure housing.

Trying to survive financially.

Trying to preserve my dignity.

Trying to stop the complete collapse of my future while still being excluded from meaningful engagement about my own employment and wellbeing.

I also referenced the university’s public messaging about ethics, safety, care, integrity and community.

At the same time privately, I was begging people to intervene while my health deteriorated and my life became increasingly unstable.

The distress was already visible. There were no hidden warning signs.

These were direct written pleas for intervention, engagement and humanity.

I was telling senior people — repeatedly — that the situation had become unbearable.

And still, the notices continued.

Notice after notice.

Email after email.

Without meaningful action.

And the institutionalised wage theft continued…

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Document 297

——

There was something else weighing on me as I wrote these emails.

Earlier that year, I had gone to the Kogarah electorate office seeking help. By then, this was no longer simply a workplace matter. It was an urgent issue involving SafeWork NSW, SIRA NSW, regulatory failure, and the devastating consequences that failure was having on my life.

I was told that Cheryl Han was not there because she was on carer’s leave caring for her mother.

She had every right to be.

And yet hearing that stirred something in me that I could not ignore.

It brought me back to 2019, when I first raised concerns about psychosocial hazards in my workplace.

Back to when the Library Associate Director, took carer’s leave to care for her father.

I never begrudged the library associate director that leave. I never begrudged Cheryl hers.

Family matters.

Parents matter.

People should be able to care for those they love.

The problem was that I could not reconcile the contrast between the compassion and protection afforded to others and what happened to me.

When I reported workplace harm and asked for a safe work environment, the issue was not resolved locally. Instead, I was handed over to Human Resources without consultation. The concerns I raised were never treated as the serious work health and safety matter they were.

What followed was not support.

What followed was escalation.

The bullying and harassment I had reported did not stop.

The discrimination became worse.

The exclusion became worse.

The retaliation became worse.

And eventually, even my family’s privacy was dragged into it.

That remains one of the most disturbing aspects of this entire story.

My family had nothing to do with the workplace issue I had raised.

They had nothing to do with my request for a safe work environment.

Yet private family matters became known, discussed and ultimately weaponised in a process that should never have involved them at all.

It was not enough that I was already dealing with the consequences of reporting workplace harm.

It was not enough that I was already experiencing discrimination, harassment and the loss of my health.

My family’s privacy was violated as well.

That is why they made a formal complaint to the University.

Their own privacy had been breached in circumstances that should never have occurred.

——

By March 2022, these events no longer existed as separate memories. They had become part of a single pattern, where the rights, dignity and wellbeing of some people appeared worthy of protection, while mine could be disregarded.

A pattern where people who participated in, enabled, defended or remained silent about what had happened continued to enjoy the protection of their workplace rights and entitlements.

Meanwhile, I was fighting for the most basic things.

My health.

My livelihood.

My dignity.

My future.

My life.

The right to care for my own family without it being used against me.

The right to have my privacy respected.

The right to have my family’s privacy respected.

The right to ask for a safe work environment without triggering years of retaliation and harm.

That was what sat behind every email I wrote in 2022.

That was what sat behind every request to meet with my elected representative.

I was asking for somebody, anybody, with the authority to intervene, to finally acknowledge what had happened and bring it to an end.

Instead, I found myself writing another email.

Another notice.

Another plea.

Trying to explain a level of suffering that should never have followed a request for a safe work environment.

And increasingly, it felt as though the people who could stop it had simply decided not to.

Notice After Notice — Part 5 - March 2022 - Email to Chris Minns’ Kogarah Electorate Office and University Governance

21 March 2022 — “Honesty Is the Best Policy”

By March 2022, the pattern had become relentless.

Email after email.

Request after request.

Notice after notice.

I was still trying to survive the consequences of prolonged non-compliance, withheld entitlements, and institutional silence.

On 21 March 2022, I sent two more emails. One to the Kogarah electorate office. One to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Ethics). Both reflected the same reality:

I was still waiting.

Still unsupported.

Still trying to secure my future while those with power delayed (or ignored) accountability.

This documented correspondence forms part of that continuing chronology.  

⸻

Email One — To the Kogarah Electorate Office

“I can only speculate”

The first email was sent to Cheryl Han at the office of my local member, who is now Premier of New South Wales.

The subject line alone captured the uncertainty I had been left to live in:

“Return of my work and entitlements: I think there’s progress but I can only speculate.”

That sentence says everything.

No transparency.

No meaningful updates.

No certainty regarding my stable employment, my income, or my legal entitlements.

At that point, I was trying to secure a home loan while still dealing with the financial fallout of withheld workers compensation entitlements. I wrote:

“In exactly a month, I have to pay the stamp duty - $21,500. Am I going to need to steal more funds from my superannuation…?”  

That was the reality created by prolonged non-payment and regulatory failure to enforce statutory compliance.

I also explained:

“I need proof of my employment to submit my documents to the mortgage broker to secure the loan. This delay is causing more harm and anxiety for me.”  

This is what often gets lost in discussions about workers compensation disputes.

The harm caused by institutional failure affects:

• housing security,
• financial stability,
• superannuation,
• family relationships,
• mental wellbeing,
• and a person’s ability to recover and thrive once more in their life.

⸻

Email Two — To the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Ethics)

Later the same day, I wrote to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Ethics), Prof. Hayden Ramsay.

The trigger was a short leadership video about honesty, ethics, and transparent communication.

I listened to a senior executive speak publicly about integrity while privately I remained trapped in silence, delay, and unresolved harm.

So I responded directly.

“I liked your bite sized video about honesty and communication in the work environment.”  

But I also made something else clear:

“My first document in this nightmare aligns to what you said.”  

That is the contradiction at the centre of this story.

The issue was never that I failed to communicate.

I communicated repeatedly.

Documented concerns repeatedly.

Escalated respectfully.

Requested help appropriately.

Followed process after process after process.

The problem was what happened after notice was received.

Or more accurately:

What did not happen.

⸻

“Honesty Is the Best Policy”

One line from the earlier email stood out to me when revisiting these documents:

“If a worker, small business, health professional or other related entity, committed worker’s compensation fraud, they would’ve been prosecuted immediately…”  

That frustration came from witnessing what appeared to be a completely unequal system of accountability.

Workers are scrutinised intensely.

But when institutions allegedly fail to comply with statutory obligations, the response too often becomes:

• delay,
• deflection,
• procedural exhaustion,
• and silence.

At the time, I still believed that if enough evidence was provided, someone in leadership would eventually intervene appropriately.

That belief kept me writing these emails.

⸻

The Human Cost of Institutional Delay

These emails also show something else clearly:

I was not disengaged from my workplace.

I was desperately trying to preserve my connection to it.

I repeatedly asked for:

• restoration of employment,
• return of entitlements,
• implementation of injury management obligations,
• communication,
• and safe return-to-work processes.

Instead, I was left in limbo while trying to hold together every other part of my life, including my family, my housing security and my future.

⸻

Public Accountability Means More Than Public Messaging

Universities speak often about:

• ethics,
• dignity,
• mission,
• integrity,
• and community.

But public accountability is not measured by leadership videos or strategic language.

It is measured by conduct when a worker becomes vulnerable, especially after repeated notice.

And by March 2022, notice had already been given many times.

But the institutionalised wage theft continued…

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Document 295

⸻

Further Reading: Is Your Workplace Psychologically and Ethically Healthy?

Years before my own experience unfolded, an article titled “Is Your Workplace Psychologically and Ethically Healthy?” explored the connection between workplace ethics, psychological wellbeing, leadership behaviour, trust, communication, and organisational culture.

The article argues that ethical workplaces are not defined by mission statements, policies, or leadership slogans. They are defined by everyday actions. By whether people are treated fairly. By whether concerns can be raised safely. By whether leaders respond honestly when problems are identified. And by whether workers who are struggling are supported rather than ignored.

Reading that article now, I am struck by how closely it aligns with the themes running throughout this Notice After Notice series.

On 21 March 2022, I found myself responding to a leadership video about honesty and communication while simultaneously sending yet another email asking for help, information, and action.

The issue was never a lack of policies.

The issue was what happened after concerns were raised.

A psychologically and ethically healthy workplace requires more than statements about integrity. It requires leaders to listen when workers report harm. It requires transparency when mistakes are made. It requires accountability when systems fail. And it requires action when repeated notices are given.

By the time these emails were sent, I had already spent years documenting concerns, escalating issues, providing evidence, and seeking assistance from those with responsibility to act. Yet I remained trapped in uncertainty, still waiting for communication, support, and the implementation of obligations that should never have required years of advocacy.

That is why this series on my lived experience is called Notice After Notice.

Each email represents another moment where information was provided, concerns were documented, and opportunities existed to prevent further harm.

The tragedy is not that notice was absent.

The tragedy is how many notices were given.

Further Reading:

Yamada, D. (2010, 5 July). ‘Is Your Workplace Psychologically and Ethically Healthy?’ Minding the Workplace blog. [Online]: https://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/is-your-workplace-psychologically-and-ethically-healthy/