DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ON THE
BASIS OF CRIMINAL
RECORD
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Submission No. 93 - 'Dani'
Discrimination
Discrimination starts the day you are charged with an offence. And it
increases tenfold the minute you receive a jail term. Once you leave
prison, it's multiplied again.
That dreaded trip to Centrelink is always
waiting for you. Time to sign up for your Newstart. You must answer some
questions, sign an agreement that you will look for work, fill out their
bloody diary and go and see a job agency. Thinking to yourself, "what a waste of time this is,
no one is going to give me a job" and you can see by the look the
Centrelink worker gives you, that he thinks the same thing.
Your appointment
is made at the local job agency. WOW, this is going to be fun for all.
You arrive on time, your name is called, the enthusiastic young worker
bounces out of their office to greet you. "Well, let's
sit down and start and find out all about you. Let's start working on
a resume for you as without one of them it's difficult to find work as
most employers ask for them." Now it's getting hard. Do I tell them
about my criminal record? Not sure what to do. How do I explain all the
gaps that will appear in my resume? So I tell her. "Well. um . what
we can do maybe is fill in the gaps and say you were travelling." I
think to myself, I did a lot a trips. We finally come up with a document
that looks okay (for someone who I don't recognise).I leave the office
feeling like crap and the worker heads back to their office without a
bounce.
It's 1996. I am released once again from prison. This is the fifth
time in four years. I've had enough of jail and decided I'm not going
back. Living on the dole isn't an option as I can't survive on that small
amount. I need to find work. I answer an ad in the paper for factory
workers. I ring and get an interview. When I get there I find out it's
an employment agency. I have to fill out some forms and do a couple tests
which I passed easily I must say. The phone rings at home, "We have
work for you",
I'm told. The next morning I'm up at 4.30am to catch 2 buses and be at
the factory at 6.30am ready to start. The first few days go by, everything
is fine. The biggest hurdle I am facing is answering my workmates questions: "where
do I come from? What work had I done before?" This got harder as
time went on. Once again I was caught up in bullshit but I wanted to
fit in as I was enjoying working there. Each day I got faster at my job
and was getting more hours offered to me. My life was turning around.
I had a job I was enjoying and meeting new people. Six weeks later I
lost the lot. Suddenly the hours dried up and no longer was I needed.
I kept ringing the job agency but they would only say that I was not
needed. Something was not right so I rang one of the women that I had
met at work to see if she was still getting work. She was. After a couple
a minutes on the phone, she said there was talk going around that I had
been to jail and that people were saying other things about me. The next
day I rang management and asked them what the problem was. I was told,
because of my past, I was unsuitable. I put the phone down and thought
fuck it, and the rest is history. Another three jail sentences awaited
me. Who knows, maybe if I'd still had that job, things could have been
different.
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