Hi all

I am new here and not sure if this is what I need.
My 23 years employment with a local government employer was terminated in late 2018 because of my concerns with the public’s safety and well-being as well of my own fears concerning the unroadworthy Heavy Vehicle that I had driven and the employer’s lack of duty to maintain the truck to proper Heavy Vehicle National Compliance Laws.

Instead the employer made allegations against me and had forced me to be evaluated by 2 doctors for mental illness, rather than addressing the workplace safety concerns that were so evident, bad steering and later brake issues.

For a long time the termination of my employment consumed my life with seeking Industrial support to which in the end i was offered a small sum of money under an agreement to also keep my mouth shut about the issues, further losing contact with my family and find my relationship with my partner very difficult.

I care very much about my family but according to them I have interfered in their life so much so that they don’t want to know me with my daughter not allowing my grand children to see me.

I feel that because the local government employer had made allegations against me, my family believes the allegations to be true despite the evidence I have and myself losing their respect of me.

I have a casual position now as a HR Truck Driver but have gone weeks without work.

Feeling angry, lost and alone.

Hello to you, what an awful ordeal you have been through. You must have broad shoulders because the loss you have sustained seems to have burdened you But Not broken you. I admire that you have found New and hopefully better employment. It's a bugger all the slinging mud and allegations but that is just it, they are allegations, and not facts, in time allegations go away. Sorry your feeling angry lost and alone, these forums may be just what you need to get you back on your feet. Adios, that is Bye in Spanish!!

Good afternoon D5N and thank you for sharing your personal and difficult struggle. I'm really sorry to hear that the problems you endured at work have had very negative impacts on you and your relationship with your partner and daughter. I can understand that you must be feeling very isolated and upset. It must be difficult to move on from those allegations if you say your family still believe them. Have you considered speaking with a counsellor or psychologist? This may be beneficial to do by yourself to start with but perhaps even bringing your partner or daughter along might help for all sides to say how they are feeling and that you can all work on a path forward together. I hope you can find peace with the whole situation soon and find a successful outcome with your family.

Thanks for your replies.

It has been pretty hard for me to simply let the workplace issues go at the time. I had felt a strong need to have made sure no one was seriously injured or even killed within the workplace or on public roads with the use of an unroadworthy heavy vehicle. The managers didn’t seem to care about the seriousness of the steering or brake issues with the truck until they realised I had much evidence against them. Wow did they cause an all mighty storm after that, so much so that it can be seen that the employer had interfered with the process concerning the Industrial Relations and in effect of the employer’s allegations of me, caused me to lose Union support. All the while I had been still driving a dangerous truck on public roads.

As a result of the Human Resource Officer’s involvement with the issues, her employment was terminated. The workplace Health And Safety Officer to which had helped me, also had caused him as I understand, redeployed to working at the garbage dump. The Workshop Supervisor has had his employment terminated.

The biggest joke is that the Union Representative who had been dealing with me also was shown the door by the Union.

Seems there were very big concerns about the issues except the dangerous state of the truck.

By now I think a lot of people including myself think that how this would be possible if in fact workplace policy or industrial laws were followed. To those who think that there is a lot more to the story, well I’m still wondering too but can only see that management were simply covering their arses. Why they did not show a duty of care is any ones guess. I’d say there was financial difficulty. I didn’t want it being on my conscience that I had seriously injured or killed someone while driving an unroadworthy heavy vehicle on the road.