In 1999 I worked at Tandou Cotton Farm & stood up for workers threatened with sack for complaining.Conditions were very bad with lack of drinking water, no First Aid Kit or water to wash chemicals from hands before eating. No shade and up to 14 hour days with missed breaks.Workers collapsed in the field with dehydration & heat. We were told to leave them on the ground & keep working or be sacked. The farm Arial sprayed the chippers with Endosulfan Insecticide, and then told the workers to wash themselves and cloths thoroughly before denying it happened. We were charged rent for windowless caravans, car chassis or a tarp between trees. The camp did not meet any health and safety standards, the contractor sold home slaughtered products, alcohol and cigarettes. We were sold company fuel to drive our selfs and others to work in our own cars. The AWU were at the farm with no regard for workers rights, the Shearers and Rural Workers Union were there trying to poach members and make trouble. Police turned up only to remove The Shearers and Rural Workers Union from the farm who then made an official complaint against Police. The Contractor was employing workers on unemployment benefit & illegal immigrants, demonstrating a means of controlling the work force. We were not being paid the correct rate of pay or overtime. Over a period when I had returned home, the Australian Workers Union held a meeting with employees including illegal workers to change the rate of pay to be less than the award rate, also removing almost all penalty rates. The justification given by the AWU was that workers would haveto accept this to keep their job. Employees including illegal immigrants & those on Unemployment Benefit voted in a reduction of the award rate and penalties, effectively leaving the workers worse off.The AWU and Contractor knowingly signed up illegitimate AWU Members to vote in a lower Pay Rate. When I returned to work I demanded to see the Union official who was still on the farm. Efforts were made by Contractor and Tandou to prevent me, so I walked and eventually found the AWU official.I explained his actions with illegitimate AWU members was immoral and illegal. I shared calculations on how a fair Pay Rate could be achieved, based on my years wage sheets. Calculating my total income with award rate and penalties to find the total earned in dollars, than dividing this by total hours worked in the season to put forward a flat rate figure for starting point.I included calculations of costs that would not be incurred by permanent employees and suggested legal employees/union members might be willing to accept a small reduction of this figure in flat rate. The AWU official was not willing to accept mistake or wrong doing or interested in what I had to say. The contractor walked down cotton rows on a Friday afternoon while we were chipping with a list ofworker who hadn't joined AWU, asking them one by one to sign up as they worked & chipped weeds.I was asked to sign up as a Member of the AWU. When I asked what happens if I dont sign, he said I would be paid less than other workers and not allowed to work on weekends. I said that is Blackmail. When I picked up my pay that afternoon I found that AWU fees had been taken out even though I had not joined. December 1999 the farm was raided by Police, Immigration & DHS including Broken Hill Centrelink. Before day break we were dragged out of bed and forced to a Grassed area near Contractors office. 11 Dec 1999 I was sent to hospital in an ambulance, unconscious after being assault by a Union Rep. I was then blacklisted by the Union and Employers were told not to employ me, locals shunned me. Page 2 FOI Centrelink Office Docs 11-12 August 2009 Official Notification of Blacklisting. I personally handed in a Document explaining Blacklisting Centrelink Stored on File in Broken Hill. Page 3-4 FOI Centrelink Office Docs 12 August 2009 My Document about Tandou & Unions. Copy of my Document stored on file at Centrelink regarding Tandou and Union Blacklisting. Page 5-6 Broken Hill Newspaper December 1999 Stories about Tandou illegal cotton workers. Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 1 of 6 Document1FOI LEX 8656 - Page 9 11AUG 2009PCCPHOPHOCUS ENQ NSA- to attend BKN as walkinF Screen Help Archived from environment A on18 JUL 2012 for CRN Name:GARY ROBERT LOONEY ServRsn:NSAAdlServ:Enquiry ENQ Type: Who: CUSSource: PHOReceipt Date: 11AUG 2009 Channel Type: PHODOA DOC:-Expiry: -Sum: Txt: Storage: NILStorage Date: -Office: PCCAuth:S22 CUSENQNSAExt Detail:to attendBKN as walkin Customer contacted CC PORT AUGUSTA on11AUG 2009 regarding General Enquiryfor Newstart Allowance.Information wasobtained via Phone Call. Document created byS22on11AUG 2009. Contacted at 14:27 Rec No:861418 CUST pho to discuss work options and jsa provide he is now linked with. CUST wants to complain about the number of jobs available in his area and how illigal immigrants have flooded then workplace so locals cannot get work. CUST also wants to discuss how he was injured in a job that jnm found for him. CUST adv cannot get a job in his area sincewas black-balled by an employer for complaining. S22 12 AUG2009BKNPERPERCUS ENQ NSA - NSA Corres rec'dF Screen Help Archived from environment A on18JUL 2012 for CRNName:GARY ROBERT LOONEY ServRsn: NSA Who: CUS Channel Type: PER Sum: Txt: CUS ENQ NSA AdlServ: Source: PER DOADOC: -Storage: NIL Office: BKN Enquiry ENQ Type: Receipt Date: 12 AUG 2009 Expiry: -Storage Date: -Auth:S22 Ext Detail:NSA Corres rec'd Customer contacted BROKEN HILL on12 AUG 2009 regarding General Enquiryfor Newstart Allowance.Information wasobtained - In Office. Document created byS22on12 AUG 2009. via Personal Correspondence lodged at BROKEN HILL(BKN)on12/08/2009. DOCUMENTSRECEIVED: - SS075 - Counter statement RETAINED ON SITE: Workgroup - WAP Position-S22 Locationof documents: placed in MIFE which has been place in the on file batch in broken hill COMMENT(S): customer personally handed in letter. http://elink.csda.gov.au/ace/servlet/au.gov.centrelink.ace.servlet.OdrRetrievalRequest... 29/05/2014 Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 2 of 6 Document 3 FOI LEX 8656 - Page 1212 August 2009 Page 1 of 2 To Centre Link (Broken Hill office) from Gary Looney (Menindee) Many Menindee residents, including me were employed during the picking seasons under the ownership of Stan Andriski , Cotrel or Eric Biggs Grape Growers with virtually no illegal immigrants. Tandou started to grow more cotton & employed chippers using a contractor to separate liability, in order to maintain or entrap workers. Illegal immigrants and those being also on benefit were welcomed! There was a worker living in a bare van body with broken windows dumped behind a shed for example, as long as you were there they did not care. Young workers travelling the country side or also receiving benefit did not care, working beside illegal immigrants. Workers were often forced to work over 12 hours a day for 6 and 7 days a week, to work with inadequate water and were paid less than the award, also without full penalty rates. Fuel was sold to workers owning and having to use their own cars to get the work force to/from the fields, around the 25km long lake bed. Conditions were investigated & found to be well below standards in regards to camp health standards and charges including rent regardless of whether you lived under a tarp. Working conditions failed health & safety standards with illegal omission of work breaks, lack of shelter and inadequate water. Alcohol, Privately slaughtered meat, food goods and petrol were sold illegally and helped to entrap workers. Almost the whole chipping crew were sprayed with the Chemical Endosolfin by spray plane one day, the Company basically denied it & no EPA action was taken on workers complaints of the event. Tandou and the Australian workers union negotiated privately and pushed a purposed new pay rate to the work force, with virtually no employee notice. I had taken the day off and returned to find employees had participated in a vote organized by the AWU and Tandou resulting in a rate and penalty change with net reduction of award and penalty entitlement. I collected pay sheets representing a single worker for the whole season and summed the total payment Tandou was making to the worker. I then calculated the total amount payable to the same worker for the same hours using the previously unpaid award rate over the whole season. Other factors for itinerant workers were also outlined for consideration of a fair compromise! The contractor refused to help when I asked to meet and talk with the union official. Lake workers told me of his location on the lake so I walked kms and finally tracked him down, explaining he cannot allow illegal workers to vote on our wage rate and put forward my pay sheet accumulated figures. A Shearers union had been parked just outside the chippers camp a few times during the season and told me I should join them and provide them with the pay sheets, the discussion turned to the union using intimidation and pressuring me to join! I explained that changes need to be made on fact and honesty, which both unions were failing to demonstrate. The fact that I wanted to forward my experience and view personally and refused to join them was seen as not acceptable, there was abuse direct towards me from this union as I walked away. When I went back to Menindee a member of the Shearers union king hit me which resulted in hospitalization and a serious neck injury. I tried to continue working whilst in a lot of pain and was asked politely to leave by the contractor! You will find or remember that Social security along with police and immigration raided Tandou Lake Chippers Camp and dragged us all out of bed to a grassy area near the Contractors office, some of the illegal immigrants and workers receiving benefit were caught. During this season I had sent hundreds of letters to Government and unions with full documentation of events. When immigration released the information of illegal workers publically I again forward my documentation to Government and unions with this additional supporting information. Cotton Chippers rates were changed again with a base rate increase traded for changes to the penalty rates, resulting in a fairer compromise which became the practice of similar itinerant employment sectors today! Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 3 of 6Documents 3FOI LEX 8656 - Page 13 12 August 2009Page 2 of 2 To Centre Link (Broken Hill office) from Gary Looney (Menindee) Word around was that I was black listed by Tandou and no one should employ me, a Greek family with grapes in Menindee always employed my family as we were respected as good workers and friends. I was latter told by this Greek family that they were given the message not to employ me, and explained that although it had made them uncomfortable I would always be welcome. This family later sold their grape property to Table Grape Growers. TGG employed me without actually knowing they had done so when using a contractor, I was employed to work with the grapes and had to go to a pre work initiation were pictures were used rather than talking, because a large number of the employees could not speak English. Our contractor only employed legal Australians for a government contracted employment network agency and the whole 26 or more of us Australians and contractor were sacked by TGG, I helped some that traveled from places like Queensland for this work, to try and get them money so they could drive home. There is mixed opinion in the Menindee community in regards to my actions and me, many see me as a traitor to our community and a risk to business that the work force provides in areas such as poker machine use during the season for example. I was verbally assaulted recently by an employer who was acting like I had reported or threatened to report them to immigration or something. Previously I was employed by Boulevard Motel in Mildura which was initiated and organized through Mildura social security were the Employer is paid part of your wage for a set period by Government. Whilst employed the employer continued to ask me to carry out or help him carry out illegal tasks, including rewiring of room heaters connected directly to the fuse box with heavy wall cabling, of which I refused. He also directed me to rotate the mattresses as the bottom floor got more use, this involved carrying each double bed mattress from the above rooms downstairs to the lower rooms, and the bellow mattresses upstairs! My back was injured trying to carry one of these mattresses upstairs and my employer told me that official documentation would not be required, that he would provide medical treatment. I was in a bit of pain and just wanted to get treatment so went to see the assumed specialist who turned out to be more like the family massager, not a doctor! It became obvious this injury would not go away. I went to social security & explained what had happened, I could not work properly with the injury and this employer was only abusing me and the system so I requested severance pay. Social Security offered no assistance in regards to the employer legality or actions they would take in this matter, only assurance that I would be eligible for benefit due to the injury sustained! Documentation was made by Mildura social security at the time as it was later found when I discussed this mater in the Broken Hill centre link office. Were in this chain of events would your office or another relevant Government office acknowledge such events and do things differently? Make the types of changes that I actively fought to make! If I Put my back in the wrong position under weight, it can result in total disability which has seen me stuck at home for more than a day, unable to move or contact help with no communication system. Attacks similar to asthma have also affected me. I realized some time back that some physical jobs may not be possible for me going forward and have worked towards learning Computer based technology and internet based business as a sustainable alternative. My internet connection under the Governments Australian Broadband Guarantee was recently disconnected, leaving me in a position where I would have less flexibility in usage time and pay considerably more to connect with a replacement provider. I want the connection restored with reliable & affordable provider of a large plan Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 4 of 6 Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 5 of 6 Gary Looney (Menindee NSW)11 August 2015 Centrelink Documentation of Union Blacklisting and Tandou Farm Page 6 of 6