“MAYBE THEY JUST DON’T LIKE YOU”
T H E S A G A B E G I N S ...........
MONDAY NIGHT SPECIAL - community legal service assists TAFE male ageism/disability victim
I went to Redfern Legal Centre for an appointment on Monday night of 16 April 2012, having been told it was there Discrimination Night. There I had two female solicitors talking to me, the younger one “Jess”, who had read my file with all the emails in it, and the more sceptical sort of older one “Tess” – who hadn’t. I was asking about my legal position in regard to several types of discrimination from Ultimo TAFE, where they’d been freezing me out of a subject I was studying there involving student “group work” with much younger students. I tried to give “Tess” context to the situation, by outlining how I’d already complained to St George TAFE about their gender discrimination in allocating work placements in 2009, when I was doing a case management Diploma there.
“Tess” just didn’t want to hear my story, and though they knew I’d now lodged a formal complaint to Ultimo TAFE about their age, sex and disability discrimination – she couldn’t help ridiculing me by saying: “maybe they just don’t like you”. I disagreed – no I get along okay with them. Later they talked to the youngish male solicitor there who was indicating that they couldn’t sign off on my proposed complaint. Back in another room, “Jess” and “Tess” tried to break it to me that I was on my own – to which I tried to recap briefly. “Tess”, again testy said – not your STORY again. Next day I saw the Principle Solicitor (PS) in the street and complained that “Tess” had ignored my request for me to see a male solicitor instead of them. It involved a sexual discrimination afterall.
PS pointed out that sex discrimination legislation had been framed with discrimination against females in mind and age discrimination was hard to pin down. She is more like my age and probably knows something about the social justice campaigns I’ve been involved in over decades – one which got a Human Rights Commission grant for a long time paper (ie DOLE NEWS). So she got me an interview with another solicitor (female) of similar vintage to me on Friday 20 April. That solicitor was a discrimination specialist, and couldn’t understand why had been an appointment on a Monday night – as that was the Police matters night – while Tuesday night was for discrimination stuff. No wonder I was getting the crim doing-over by “Tess” and the bearded overseer.
TELLING MY STORY - younger students petition TAFE to remove older students from classes.So when “Tess” and PC challenged me on whether “they just don’t like you” , I had to go back to 2005, when my ageism experiences with younger students really started when doing TAFE courses again. At Randwick TAFE I was doing a Multimedia course part time. (In 2000 Centrelink, had barred me from completing my Social Science degree part-time - by forcing me to do the final three subjects in one semester and get a full time education based payment instead of the dole). In 2005, Centrelink claimed I could do this high level digital media course part time, while doing my longtime State and local Govt recognised unpaid community work in public tenant support and longtime community arts festival co-ordination - to satisfy the "activity test".) I preferred to do study part time as I could do classes a couple of nights a week - and classes would have a balance of (usually employed) mature aged students in them,
In the Multimedia course, us middle aged students made up about half the classes in the subject - but the younger students still couldn't accept ANY middle aged students being in their classes. They actually came up with a sort of PETITION (a letter they all signed), demanding that we be removed from their classes. This was so serious that the then two (digital media) Head Teachers, Peter Ford and Amparo "Depue" (I'm not sure of spelling of this Peruvian lady's last name) held a forum with all us students - with no resolution being found. In the same course, a female teacher told me after a class that me and another older male student SHOULD LEAVE THE CLASS AS WE WERE "HOLDING UP THE YOUNGER STUDENTS". I made a written complaint aboutb this - but the Head Teachers generally avoided even touching written complaints. In any case the teacher involved, did sort of "apologise" for her ageist discrimination. Quite rightly I got a DISTINCTION in the subject.
GENDER DISCRIMINATION - admitted by St George TAFE community services coursesI had to return to St George TAFE to complete a Diploma in case management, because they failed to offer me a placement (not just work experience) during 2009, when I hoped to complete it (including all class based subjects). The placement teacher ended up admitting that most placemrent organisations she approached, told her "WE USUALLY GET A FEMALE". The Dept Director later admitted in a reply to my complaint to ST George TAFE, that they WERE saying this. I got a second placement in 2010, involving 240 hours (equivalent to class-type study hours) after the teacher only got me a holiday placement over the 2009/10 Xmas break - where I ran out of Austudy (at the end of 2009 calendar year). That placement with St Vincent de Paul's Mathew Talbot Homeless Services (MTHS) lasted 166 hours into 2010, when the female workplace "supervisor" unfairly dismissed me as soon as I showed her a Dr certificate regarding my diagnionsed lower back condition, saying I couldn't do the heavy lifting they were about to get me to do in their Clinic section (lifting clients to shower them etc). She claimed rhat the medical certificate could be said to amount to a "refusal to do work". She then repeatedly derated me as being "unemployable".
I had been pleading to the female St George teacher to get me out of that placement, as they hadn't been interested in supporting any of my Work Plans (needed to be able to do a Portfolio about the placement and therefore be passed TAFE in the subject. However the teacher never replied to my emails over the holiday period - though she later let me withdraw from the "workplace learning" subject with no penalty. In early 2010 she contacted me about reenrolling in the subject - and do another placement (in order to at last finish the Diploma). She then got me another male only client base placement - this time way out west in a church run drug and alcohol Rehab (though I wasn't doing an AOD course at all). Alas, the workplace supervisor there had previously been a manager at MTHS - and acted just as arbitarily as the (usually absent female) one there who has "supervised" me. He ended up kicking out all the TAFE placement students at the same time for no apparent reason - but he was careful that I had my 240 hours up. he praised my project there and my support for him (though illness in his family).
However he now wasn't replying to my emails as I worked on my huge Portfolio for the TAFE teacher to mark - so I emailed the new TAFE teacher, who also couldn't get him to co-operate in signing me off on the placement (describing him as "difficult". By the end of the semester, the Acting Head Teacher decided to sign off on the placement - based on my Portfolio that I handed in. I had been rightly apprehensive that I might end up having to do a THIRD 240 hour placement in the second semester of this unnecessarily extended full time course. When TAFE passed me with the second (OAD*) placement, I spent the 2010/11 holidays applying for jobs in case management related fields - but only got two interviews (and no full time job). In 2011 I did Youth Work cert 4 at Ultimo TAFE (close to my home - and I couldn't afford to repair my car anymore). After getting my St George Diploma in Community Services (case management) in mid 2011, I made my written complaint to them about their gender discrimination. (* Alcohol and Other Drugs)
Only a few months after that graduation (a year later than was necessary) and as I was frantically finishing assignments in November for Youth Work - I got a letter from Centrelink's Brisbane's based hit-squad, claiming it had "information" from St George TAFE. They gave me a deadline of 15 December to produce any documentation showing I was full time enrolled in 2010 and 2011 - however they cut me off Austudy on 6 December - imposing an near $18,000 debt on me for two year's Austudy. They claimed I had been only doing a "nominal" 5 hours per week,amount of study load (class) hours in 2011. On the phone - the chief Brisbane Centrelink hit-man, on the phone, claimed that they thought had been doing Youth Work cert 4 at St George TAFE in 2010. The female so-called "Authorised Review Officer" also in Brisbane, claimed (on the phone) that placement hours didn't count as study (load) hours. The Welfare Rights Centre, later, gave me a copy of the Social Security legislation - where it said that if the educational institution said that the "practical work" hours were essential to the course - placement hours could count as "study load" hours.
They seemed to have no proper paper trail for keeping track of students doing several full time courses year by year. In 2011 I had applied for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) especially to get out of doing subjects I'd done in Community Services courses before - that would involve doing group work or class role plays with younger students again (as I always found that they would exclude me from working with them - as much as possible). However, I was able to do a 140 hour placement with a local government run youth service (with a "supervisor" who had the same usual last name as the female one at MTHS had). I thought I was doing the required 20 hours a week full time study load - given that the Subject Co-ordinator told the class, early in the year that - though the placement wouldn't start until the second Semester, they would be "spread" across both semesters. Afterall, we were only attending classes two days a week - which couldn't possibly add up to 20 hours a week. Unfortunately, Centrelink actually calculates its 20 hours per week on a Semester by Semester basis.
DISABILITY, EDUCATION & PARTICIPATION - what legal rights?
In 2012 I enrolled in the Youth Work Diploma at Ultimo TAFE, after completing the cert 4 in 2011. It was going okay, until the class with group work in it - required all students to form groups in order to start running programs for clients at local youth centres. The students attending were all female, except for me and a younger male, who "Jacob" . Early on, I contacted the Program Co-ordinator (PC), asking her how I can get to talk to the teacher running the course - who I'll call "Felicity"inorderto try and get her support to ensure the mostly much younger female students would include in my one of the small groups to be formed. However, the PC didn't help me get in contact, and the Secretary of the Community Services section - couldn't help me either. I then sent "Felicty" some emails raising my concerns that I'd be excluded from groups being formed, but this never resulted in any meeting with her about this issue - despite her promises to do so.
MORE TO COME - I start getting "narky" emails and the recordings that expose Head Teacher disability discrimination.
CURRENT DELAY DUE TO NEW IMMINENT DEADLINE IMPOSED BY "SOCIAL SECURITY APPEALS TRIBUNAL" ON APPEAL AGAINST UNFAIR $18,000 DEBT
Read my COLLEGE DIARY on http://mask-college.blogspot.com.au ...........about my final classes at Ultimo TAFE --------- how the Leftovers Group push me out, also my legacy of emailed demographic Newsletters to be located.
Then there are their bullying emails being released on http://unemployedpeoplesembassy-masks.blogspot.com
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