Notice After Notice — Part 4: Email to Chris Minns’ Kogarah Electorate Office and University Governance - March 2022

17 March 2022 — 12:07am

“I’m Begging to Return to Work”

Another midnight email.

Another plea for intervention.

Another warning that the harm was escalating.

This time, the subject line said everything:

“I’m begging to return to work as per injury management plan HR failed to implement.”

The email was sent to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Ethics, Professor Hayden Ramsay, and to Cheryl Han at the Kogarah electorate office. The people receiving these emails were not uninformed. By this point, they had already received multiple notices outlining failures to implement agreed return-to-work arrangements, failures to provide support, and the devastating personal and financial consequences of prolonged inaction.

And still, the silence continued. 

I was begging to return to work.

I repeatedly asked for the implementation of an existing injury management plan. I asked for communication with my treating professionals. I asked for support, boundaries, safety, and dignity. I asked for the university to stop delaying and “stealing” more from my life through ongoing non-compliance and exclusion.  

Instead, I remained isolated.

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“Why Was This Done to One of the University’s Quality Staff Members?”

One of the most painful parts of this email is that it reveals how deeply personal the harm had become.

I wrote openly about unresolved grief following my father’s suicide, about being denied the space to process trauma safely, and later attempting to take care of my health — only to have deeply private matters weaponised in workplace discussions.  

I was asking for the same lawful leave entitlements, privacy protections, and dignity afforded to every worker.

Instead, I found myself questioning how personal information had circulated internally, why it was discussed in professional settings, and how such conduct could coexist with a university publicly promoting inclusion, ethics, dignity, and wellbeing.

The contradiction became unbearable.

In the same period these events were unfolding behind closed doors, the university was publicly promoting campaigns about equity, inclusion, bias awareness, and community values. Yet internally, I was describing exclusion, isolation, mobbing, slander, and psychological harm.  

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“I’m Now Getting Chest Pains”

By March 2022, the cumulative harm was clearly escalating.

The email records statements including:

“I’m now getting chest pains.”  

“I have no support.”  

“I’m not ok at all.”  

These were explicit warnings of deteriorating wellbeing communicated directly to senior leadership and external representatives.

Importantly, I was still asking for constructive resolution.

I asked for:

• implementation of the agreed injury management plan,
• restoration of withheld entitlements,
• contact with colleagues to reduce isolation,
• coordination with my treating professionals,
• and the implementation of safe boundaries so I could continue contributing meaningfully to the university community.  

That is what makes this series of emails so confronting.

Even at breaking point, I was still trying to preserve my employment, my dignity, and my connection to the university community I had served for two decades. Because that is what will assist my recovery. 

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Ethics, Governance, and the Duty to Act

This email also raises serious governance and WHS questions.

By March 2022:

• concerns about failures in injury management processes had already been repeatedly communicated;
• concerns regarding psychological safety and workplace harm had been escalated;
• requests for implementation of return-to-work obligations remained unresolved;
• and clear warnings about deteriorating health and financial harm continued to be ignored.

The email specifically references recommendations from treating professionals and rehabilitation supports not being acted upon.  

It also references prolonged exclusion and isolation from the workplace community.  

For any employer, these issues would be serious.

For a publicly funded university whose leadership portfolio include ethics, mission, and community values, the contradiction becomes even harder to reconcile.

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“I’m Begging”

The final words in the email are simple:

“I’m begging.”  

That captures the reality of this period more honestly than any legal submission ever could.

This was a worker trying to survive institutional silence while begging to return to work safely.

And the notices kept coming.

And the institutionalised wage theft continued…

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Document 294.