Man claims job discrimination
After being retrenched twice last year, English recruitment consultant Wayne Reveley couldn’t believe his luck when he received three job offers.
After several interviews, Reveley thought he’d found the job for him and accepted a role with the accountability wing of Ambition Corporate Services on August 10, walking away from the other offers.
“It was fantastic, as I was on notice to leave the country. It was a lengthy interview process and very, very thorough,” Reveley said.
Ambition contracted a migration agent to start securing a 457 visa for Reveley to stay in the country.
Reveley said he was asked to come into the office on August 18 to pick up some papers.
“I told them they’d caught me on the way to the beach. But they said it was fine — that I’d literally just be coming in to collect the paperwork,” he said.
Three days later Reveley was invited to attend Ambition’s ten-year anniversary celebrations, where he met the directors of the company and others at the business.
At the close of the function, Reveley was met by his then-partner.
“I introduced him to my colleagues, we had one drink, then we left,” he said.
Three weeks later, Reveley visited his migration agent.
“I thought the visa was taking a hell of a long time, so I wanted to get an update,” he said. “I walked in and the agent said ‘I’m very sorry to hear your news’. I said ‘what do you mean?’. ”
Reveley said the migration agent told him his job offer had been pulled and the migration process cancelled.
“I couldn’t believe it — I thought I’d gotten to know these people,” Reveley said. “When I rang them, they wouldn’t take my calls, so I went down to the office. I waited for an hour in reception but nobody came out to see me.”
Reveley claimed he later received a phone call from one of the company’s directors who told him he had offended someone in the company by bringing his boyfriend to a work event.
In response Reveley took Ambition through the Fair Work Australia Conciliation process, where he said Ambition claimed the offer had been withdrawn because he’d been wearing shorts and a T-shirt when he’d been called into the office. They claimed this had been an induction but Reveley flatly denies this.
“If this was something so inappropriate it was deemed a sackable offence, why did they invite me to the function three days later?”
Reveley said during the conciliation hearing, Ambition made no offer to redress the situation so he’s now taking them to court.
SSO contacted Ambition Corporate Services for comment but they did not reply before going to press.
This is not impossible. Job discrimination in Australian is nothing new. It is widespread disease in Australian Society. As an Australian we all pay same tax, rates and follow the same rule. But, when we come to the jobs Anglo Saxons are privileged. This is Australian democracy and equality. The most ridiculous thing is that then the claim there is skill shortage in Australia. It is not impossible since they have hired unskilled workers for the jobs while skilled workers unemployed. This will lead to Australian companies shutting down their businesses’ since they cannot compete with international product and services. Still, hiring unskilled people through backdoor just checking skin colour and name?
As an ex-employee of AccountAbility, I can honestly say it is the most discrimatory and unprofessional work environment I have ever worked in. All kinds of discrimination takes place, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin etc. Wayne is better of out of it. It wasn’t a pleasant employment experience.
Both me and my partner live in the UK, and have twice visited Australia and had the pleasure of spending time with Wayne on both ocaisions. Obviously he was working during the day, but after work when we met for dinner etc., we can only say that , he was extremely professional when discussing his job and his role within the company, He was personable, extremely articulate and in my opinion as a business owner in the UK, would be an asset to any corporation who would bother to employ him. Fortunately we dont come across such biggotted behaviour in our country as employment rights are so strict now and seem so much fairer. We all know its what a person can bring to the company which should matter, not what sex their partner is when they bring them to a staff doo!
Very best regards Wayne…..keep fighting!
David.
Uk
Oliver…you clearly are really fucked up!
What about us that were born here? Does the Australian Government care? Xenophobic! is what a lot of migrants are. Ive worked harder in my life than any one of you.
In response to Oliver: the point here is not whether of not Mr Reveley is an Australian Citizen (although his treatment at the hands of an Immigration system that makes decisions based on what works for them, even though people who have made major life changes are left by the wayside, is appalling). It’s about discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation (or any other ‘minority’ for that matter). I think Reveley’s actions are brave and commendable. If more people spoke out about this (sadly very common) occurence we would be closer to quashing it for good.
If it wasn’t for overseas skilled migrants Australia wouldn’t be what it is today!!!! he has delt with it, he has found a great new role with a great company which the Australian Immigration Depatment has deamed/authorised that there is a skill shortage! so stick that up your nose Oliver!!!!!!! your comment smacks of xenophobia( an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers of that which is foreign or strange) I thought I would spell that out for you as you probably don’t know what it means as people with your comments are not educated enough to undersand.!!!
Wayne Reveley is NOT an Australian Citizen! Its hard enough for people who are born here to find work these days. He’ll just have to deal with it.
This has outraged me to the such a level I have actually had to put down my pint of Bombay and Tonic to compose a response. I am so angry, I’m shaking like a shitting dog. So many issues on the table here. Like, did they even CHECK the label on his t-shirt? Did they not REALISE it was vintage Westwood? How ignorant. And I am SURE they are covering something up. I suspect that it wasn’t that his boyfriend showed up, rather they were expecting a man at the function and instead Cleara Space appeared, mashed to the tits and giving out favours in the loos. One expects such behaviour at drunken corporate events, though, so why they were so upset is beyond me. I think they should realise the hardships that migrant workers suffer when going through the employment process. I heard a rumour once that one such person actually spent the night shivering under a DOILY. It’s inhumane. All she got out of this horror was a tea towel. That’s not justice, at least not in Bonni’s world. Oh crap, I’m out of Bombay. Hmmm. I think I have a spare bottle of Betrayal for Men knocking around, I’m sure if I mix it with a splash of Fresca it’ll do. Oh look, I got so worked up whilst typing this my eyelashes curled all on their own. Every cloud has a silver lining! Ciao, darlings! Bonni xo
“Our people adhere closely to our company’s values of teamwork, respect, integrity, passion and excellence”
This is from thier website http://www.ambition.com.au/about-ambition/ambition-finance
Certainly does not sound like integrity. The authorities in the UK would be interested to know how they treat potential employees who have a Civil Partnership ceremony in their UK offices.
It really does pay to sometimes withold your “orientation” until employers get to know you as a person or you pass your trial period. Which brings up an interesting point about the UK- if on the application form it requires you to tick if you are Single, Married, or Civil Partnered, then this will automatically “out” any same sex attracted people who either have to lie, or tick the gay-only apartied Civil Partnership box. If they had access to full equal marriage however, they could just tick Married, without revealing the gender of their partner. Then after your 3mth trial is up, only then go ahead & invite your partner into the office for drinks.
I would not reveal I was gay until I had worked at a place for a while, or chose a place that has a prominent & transparent diversty policy (just anti discrimination policy on it’s own is not enough), so that one or two Christian Extremist thugs don’t take advantage of a lack of policy & rally to push you out.
Who does Ambition have on their client lists? Does Ambitions clients know the kind of homophobic service they are being provided with?
Perhaps their clients should be informed of what is happening…
My partner could not do his internship at the Mildura Base Hospital that is run by Ramsay Health. They sent a team to Melbourne to interview him, asked about his links to the area and relationship status, and when told that she was in fact a he, they did not employ him. Even though I was from the country and had strong family links to the area.
Instead, they paid for an overseas citizen to move from Singapore and take up the internship in Medicine. I guess Ramsay Health really hated people who were openly gay at Mildura as I can see no other reason for this. My partner was left unemployed as a Medical Doctor. He was an Award Winning Medical student from the University of Melbourne and had even got on the Dean’s List of Medicine. All this was not enough for homophobes.
His first year of Medicine was at Peninsula Health where he had to leave it due to the homophobia. In his initial year he was required to work in a country hospital for three months. He had asked for accomodation for both of us but was told he had to produce a Marriage Certificate for this. He was finally offered accommodation for us but only if he paid about 800percent more then hetrosexual couples. He refused and had to leave Peninsula Health. The AMA said it was an oversight in the Award and nothing could be done.
All this could happen as it was a Federal Award and people like us have no protection in Federal Employment. Kevin Rudd has lied to everyone, where possible, about what he has done for our community. He in fact he still does not want to give us any Federal Protection for employment for many people on Federal Awards. It was only the Greens and Democrats (RIP) who helped us. Labor and Liberal fed us to the wolves. I wrote to every member in parliament and very few replied, and of those we were told to get over it by many Labor and Liberal members.
Personally I like the French model for stopping discrimination. They send undercover people to interviews and also send off two resumes where one person would be gay and the other not. I think this is an excellent way to catch employers who are homophobic.
Work should be about your ability to do the job and not your sexuality. Sadly stories of discrimination in employment are told far to often.
What I would like to know is that if “Fair” Work Australia finds Ambition Corporate Services guilty of discrimination based on sexual orientation what happens then ?
Is the Fair Work Australia organisation of any use?
I hope he conquers them in court – they deserve it.