After the Visit - Notice After Notice – Part 14 - May 2022

3 May 2022

“I’ve Never Felt So Afraid and Alone”

By early May 2022, I had already sent notice after notice.

I had reported the psychosocial hazards.

I had reported the discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

I had reported the failures in injury management.

I had reported the ongoing withholding of workers compensation entitlements.

I had reported the impact on my health, my family and my ability to survive financially.

And yet, I was still writing.

On 3 May 2022, I wrote again to Chris Minns and Cheryl Han at the Kogarah Electorate Office.

I was running out of options.

The reality confronting me by then was terrifying.

I had just spoken with my mortgage broker.

The financial consequences of what had happened were immediate.

I wrote:

“I just spoke with the mortgage broker. I need my entitlements stolen returned including my employment, and compliance in worker’s compensation regulations in implementing the injury management plan, providing the entitlements that had previously been withheld.”

I was trying to explain something that should never have required explanation.

Workers compensation is supposed to exist to protect injured workers.

An injury management plan is supposed to be implemented.

Weekly payments are supposed to be paid.

Support is supposed to be provided.

Instead, I found myself pleading for basic compliance with obligations that already existed.

I was frightened.

I was exhausted.

And I was humiliated.

I wrote:

“I’m completely exhausted and humiliated by all this. I’ve never felt so afraid and alone.”

It was true. The psychological injury itself was devastating enough. But the ongoing refusal to address what had happened created a second layer of harm.

Every unanswered email.

Every delayed response.

Every failure to act.

Every day without certainty.

Every day wondering whether I would lose my home.

Every day wondering whether anyone actually cared what was happening.

I was not asking for miracles.

I was asking for my employer, insurer and those with influence to recognise the gravity of what had occurred and to take action.

I wrote:

“I need my employment returned quickly. I hope ACU leaders finally realised the gravity of the harm caused by a National manager of employment relations and safety they entrusted the community’s safety to.”

What strikes me is that I was still trying to believe somebody would step in.

Still trying to believe somebody would hear me.

Still trying to believe that if enough people understood the seriousness of the situation, they would do the right thing.

The following day was approaching Mother’s Day, and the second email I sent that day reveals something else that often gets lost in workplace injury stories.

The injury never affects only one person.

The consequences spread through families. Relationships become strained. Everyone carries part of the burden.

I wrote about the Greek concept of philotimo — dignity, honour, responsibility and doing the right thing.

I explained that humiliation does not stop with the person targeted.

It affects the entire family.

I wrote:

“The humiliation and indignity affects the entire family. Not just the one targeted…”

By this point, I wasn’t simply asking for workers compensation compliance.

I was asking for my life back.

I was asking for my human right to recover.

I was asking for my employee right to return to my work under the injury management plan that had already been agreed.

I was asking not to be left in the dark.

I ended the email with these words:

“Please update me so I’m not kept in the dark anymore.”

That captures so much of what this entire period felt like.

Being kept in the dark.

Not knowing what decisions were being made, whether anyone was acting, whether anyone understood the urgency.

Not knowing whether I would lose security built over decades of hard work, and my home.

By 3 May 2022, this was no longer simply a workplace issue.

It had become a fight for survival.

And still, the notices continued.

And the institutionalised wage theft continued too..

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Document 313.

 

 The Greek Secret of Philotimo is Missing in our Society