The Victorian government agency responsible for investigating wage theft and workplace misconduct is facing allegations of bullying,sexism and excessive workload by current and former employees.
The claims emerge as former employee Greg Healy has taken the Wage Inspectorate to the Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal,after his employment was terminated in September 2023.
Greg Healy is fighting dismissal in the Fair Work Commission.Supplied
Healy was approved by WorkCover,the compensation scheme for injured workers,to take off 18 months due to psychological injuries sustained after claims of bullying and discrimination by senior managers.
Before the termination,he was suspended in February 2022 for posting political messages on a personal social media profile and allegedly harassing another staff member via text message,which he denies.
Doctors found he was unfit to participate in the workplace investigation into these claims – and he was later terminated by the Wage Inspectorate over medical advice that he was unable to complete his duties.
He is now challenging the dismissal,arguing the real reason for his suspension was his efforts to draw attention to unsafe work practices for him and his co-workers,that he witnessed and learned through his role as the CPSU union delegate and health and safety representative.
In a full-day hearing on Wednesday,Healy told the commission there was a “pattern” of behaviour that had resulted in multiple staff members “crying in the office” and that he had been “persecuted” for raising these concerns.
“If someone was injured on a machine three times,and two other colleagues got injured by it too,would the employer say go back to work without fixing that machine or resolving the problem?” Healy said.
However,the government agency pointed to 32 social media posts from an anonymous account,which Healy accepted was his,where he made political statements – allegedly contravening the workplace code of conduct for public servants.
Some of the posts included calling the Liberal and Nationals Party “cruel,often evil people” and the NSW Liberal Party a “disgrace” over corruption findings against former premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Healy denied all posts on the now-deleted account had breached the code and provided written statements undermining the harassment allegations.
The was established when new laws were introduced in 2020 to make wage theft illegal – a signature policy from the Victorian Labor government. It also assumed responsibility for other state government regulatory work,including child employment services.
This masthead has confirmed that two other claims have been made by Wage Inspectorate employees that were given WorkCover payments within a four-month period after lodging complaints about bullying,discrimination and over-work within the organisation.
One hazard incident report,seen by this masthead,was lodged in 2022 by an employee who complained of “excessive workload for self and team over extended period of time and absence of support for me to manage it by senior management”.
“Information is withheld so that we don’t know what is expected or in what direction we are heading. Requests for training and policies and procedures are ignored or excessively delayed. Approvals following selection exercises delayed for months and months leaving the team even more pressurised.
“Proposals to implement changes to systems are ignored. Also,excluded from decision-making committees,reducing my ability to have influence over decisions. For the second time in 3 months I have been asked to step out of my role and take on project work. The most recent request was mandated despite my clear and stated objections.”
A separate employee lodged an incident report in December 2021 outlining “various incidents” over the past year. “Workload set up to fail,no clear policies and procedures and high expectations[off] the back of that,” the report states.
“Frustration of seeing management do ‘mental health chats’ or ‘say the right thing’ and do another.. Lack of support when completing tasks that you are new to.”
Healy said many of the workplace discrimination was experienced by women staff in the child employment team.
An email sent by Commissioner Robert Hortle in 2019 only to female staff started with “Good morning ladies” and attached a link to an article about “The Confidence Gap” which explains women are held back by a lack of confidence in the workplace.
Worksafe,which enforces Victoria’s occupational health and safety laws,completed an investigation into the Wage Inspectorate last year following complaints from staff,which cleared the organisation of wrongdoing.
However,correspondence to Worksafe by employees,seen by this masthead,states they were “shocked” by the findings and claim the investigation was incomplete.
“I had provided witness details but they were not used at all,” one employee wrote to Worksafe in April 2023. “I had a belief that worksafe was an agency I could put my trust in… I was shocked.
“For me,the whole complaint process has made my experience of bullying worse.”
In a statement,Wage Inspectorate Acting Commissioner Lily Dekic said Worksafe investigations have “never made any findings of bullying,harassment or inappropriate behaviour,or injuries caused by over-work within the Wage Inspectorate”.
She said the organisation takes health and safety issues “extremely seriously” and “rejects in the strongest terms Mr Healy’s allegation that sexist language was used in an email”.
“The Wage Inspectorate proactively takes steps to ensure a strong culture,including to eliminate any form of discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace,” she said.
Dekic said the organisation’s leadership and staff are majority female.
“The Wage Inspectorate has some of the highest levels of employee engagement and satisfaction in the public service,as measured by the Victorian Public Service Commission’s annual employee survey,” she said.
The Fair Work Commission will deliver its finding on Healy’s employment in the coming weeks.
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