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ANZO Staff / Sea Org : Request for info

shader

Patron with Honors
Hi all,

Because of various stuff happening in my life, I couldn't go to the protest at Castlereagh St, Sydney last weekend. Nothing is going to stop me from being at the next one, and I'm using the time between now and then to research, improve my flyers, and get a plan for achieving concrete results in AU.

I want to target the CoS tax-exemption in Australia, and use Staff and Sea Org conditions and abuse as the issue to focus on. While Disconnection is an emotive issue, it isn't illegal. I want to focus on labour and tax issues.

If it can be shown that CoS is in violation of any local labour or tax laws, then we push for investigation and prosecution.

Regardless, we highlight how CoS treats its Staff and Sea Org in Australia, and ask people whether they want to be giving charity tax status to an organization that runs a hard-labour re-education and indoctrination camp (the local RPF).

What I desperately need is any recent(ish) information on the following issues:

Staff

Pay
- What are staff paid at the ANZO Orgs?
- Is the staff pay worked out using the same proportional system based on Org income as in US Orgs?
- how does pay vary between different posts? Who gets higher priority when money is tight?
- Is income tax deducted?
- Does CoS pay its share of compulsory Superannuation?

Hours and Leave
- examples of hours worked by staff
- amount of time off?
- paid sick leave or holidays?

Abuse
- any examples of unfair treatment, unreasonable demands, cruel punishment etc

Sea Org

Pay
- What is the local Sea Org payrate in $A ?
- Is income tax deducted?
- Does CoS pay it's share of compulsory superannuation?

Hours & Leave
- hours worked by AU Sea Org
- other duties each day?
- time off? How much?
- sick leave or holidays?

Berthing & Conditions
- where in AU would you find Sea Org? (which orgs, what posts etc)
- berthing for singles
- berthing for couples
- food
- is there (or has there even been) a Cadet Org in ANZO?

Abuse
- ANZO RPF - ANY INFO AT ALL
- any examples of coerced abortions
- any other examples of unfair treatment, unreasonable demands, cruel punishment etc

Other
I'm researching the applicable Australian tax and labour laws and exemptions, but if anyone has already done any work on this, I'd love to hear about it

I've set up an email address for people to send info to:

[email protected]


Or PM me here or post in this thread. Will keep all sources confidential if you wish.

Thanks
 

shader

Patron with Honors
youfoundthecard.com


Interesting site.

I didn't find much there I didn't already know. What did I miss?

EDIT: just to make it super clear, i'm specifically after info about things that happened IN AUSTRALIA.

I've read personal stories giving examples of all the stuff I've detailed above for US staff and Sea Org, but that isn't much use if I can't show people it is also happening here.

EDIT2: did you read the email from a Scientologist BFG posted the other day?
Do you think the youfoundthecard site is very much like what was suggested in that email?
I do.
 

SabinaM

Patron
Shader, the information I have is a couple of years old (2001 to 2004) but I very much doubt that much has changed at all.

SO Pay: Varies from week to week and between the orgs. AOSH pay varies from between $0 to $50 (~$50 is the maximum you're going to get, no matter how much the org makes that week). For CLO which is on the third floor at Castlereigh St. I think the most I ever got was nine or ten dollars, average was around two or three dollars and a few cents. I have no idea how much CMO gets anymore but I am thinking on average around $50. (This is AUD)

No idea about income tax or superannuation, I doubt any of us were getting any super and it seems pretty impossible that we would be earning enough for us to have to pay a tax on it.

Hours/Leave: Hours depends on the post you hold; official hours are 8am - 11pm Sun-Fri, around midday - 11pm Saturdays (mornings on Saturdays are spent cleaning the berthings and drilling emergencies or doing renovations). It used to be that minors under 16 were allowed to go back to the Base on the 9pm bus but this was canceled around mid-2002, don't know if it's been reinstated since 2004 though.

Thursdays AOSH stays until around 12 or 1am for staff meetings. If events or other "emergencies" are happening then pretty much everyone works around the clock on all-hands.

You can have one day off a month but you have to write a request to your boss who has to send it on to their boss and so on, and it's barely ever approved. Almost no one ever does this; there is always too much to do on post. Sea Org Day, Beer and Cheese Night, and Christmas around %90 of the crew get to have at least part of the day off.

No sick leave as such. If you're contagious you get put in isolation until you're better, that's all. I think you still get a little bit of money though.

You're entitled to I think one week off each year but to get this you have to get sec-checked and there are never any auditors for staff. No one ever bothers to do this.

Berthing: Big old building out in Dundas, just up the road from Telopea. I think it used to be a nunnery or something like that. Some auditors have berthing closer to the AO in Glebe, one of those old terrace houses. There are some SO members on garrison to lower orgs and they have their own apartments or live with regular org staff or whatever. I'm going to concentrate on Dundas because that's what I know best, and around 95% of the crew live there anyway.

Single people sleep in big dorms. CLO berthing is absolutely appalling; bunks stacked 3 high and really wobbly. The main CLO girls' dorm is just one enormous room and has 30+ women in it stacked 3 high like sardines. There are a few smaller dorms for everyone else in CLO, ranging from 4 to a room to 10 or 15. AO has their own wing, each AO dorm has 8 beds stacked two high.

Couples have their own wing and about half of these are acceptably furnished same as the AO wing, but the stuff they used to treat the wood in those rooms apparently gives off poisonous fumes. Cheap though! If you want to get married half the battle is trying to find berthing for you and your new spouse. There is not enough rooms for them. Luckily the divorce rate is pretty high so usually you don't have to wait too long.

For food a lot of the time we had to choose between "good" food (spaghetti or some other type of typical staple meal) and powdered milk, or proper milk and beans and rice. We pretty much always chose to have good milk because most of us lived off coffee anyway since the food was always disgusting. To save on money mouldy food would be purchased from the markets; I remember standing at a sink for most of a day peeling the mouldy outsides off brussells sprouts. Always there isn't enough food to go around and people who come in late go hungry.

There was a Cadet Org when I was there but I'm not sure if new cadets have come. Everyone I knew in the Cadet Org has either grown up to be regular SO or left. Here's a thing: when I was there cadets had two days a week of schooling; the government thought we were doing it every day but we weren't. There were no qualified teachers, we just goofed off or slept or tried to work out of the limited amount of school textbooks. There are enormous gaping holes in cadets education, although they are all literate (they have to be, how else can you learn LRH).

RPF: There are between 15-20 RPF at any time; similar deal to overseas schedule-wise. Not allowed to speak unless spoken to, have to call everyone 'sir', etc. A lot of people are there for having sex outside of marriage. It's notorious in ANZO for taking FOREVER to complete; one man was there for ten years but he finally graduated four or so years ago. This is not an unusual time frame at all. It takes forever.

This is getting a bit TL;DR so I'll leave it at that but if you need to know anything else then let us know.
 

Wisened One

Crusader
God: We lived off of very strong coffe, too.

For food we ate bread, cheap foods/snacks..or got grocery store deli thanksgiving-type dinners and luckily, they'd pile the food high so it'd last two of us for about three days, what a feast, you know? And for cheap!

(We were Class V Staff, not Sea Org).

And pay: average about 70 bucks (US) a week in our case during the entire few years we were there.

Living: Most staff roomed with each other in apartments or houses. No way could a full-time Staff afford to live on their own. Spouse and I tried it and couldn't afford it and had to room with others in their house/apartments.

None of us had cars at all and let our drivers licenses expire due to lack of time and money to get it renewed. We took buses or bummed rides from those who had cars, when we could.

For food shopping (rarely done, nor needed, since we basically LIVED at the Org) but when we did, we bought: a loaf of cheap bread, jar of peanut butter and sometimes jelly and sick that in our desk and eat that. (Many times, we worked during our 'dinner' times because of our post (Div 6)...so we'd sneak food during a few minute bathroom break, etc...

Wisened One


Wisened One
 

shader

Patron with Honors
SabinaM, thank you so much for that info.

What you describe is actually worse than I expected.

Certainly isn't tl;dr, I need as much info as I can get.

I'm researching the legal obligations CSA may have to it's employees, will keep you posted.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
I was only on staff in a Class V Org in Melbourne so I don't know much about the actual conditions in the SO or RPF in Sydney.

I did see first hand the long hours & shitty food and harsh working conditions at the CLO. It was STRESS STRESS STRESS. A really horrible environment to be in.

I only saw glimpses of the RPF as they ran past the place I was staying in. It was always late at night. They ran in silence in their black clothes back to the AO for cleaning duties I presumed.

I also don't know anyone on this board who was in the RPF in ANZO. Is there anyone?
 

shader

Patron with Honors
Emma,

I'm also after info on normal Class V Staff conditions and pay, as opposed to Sea Org. If the CoS is breaking any laws, it's more likely to be with the non-SO staff - as at least with SO, they can claim they are like monks or something.

Staff are just that, staff, except the conditions are rather different from jobs elsewhere.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
Staff

Pay

- What are staff paid at the ANZO Orgs?

I averaged about $20 per week over 7 years.

- Is the staff pay worked out using the same proportional system based on Org income as in US Orgs?

I believe so.


- how does pay vary between different posts? Who gets higher priority when money is tight?

It is worked out on a unit based system. The higher or more important your post, the more units you get. Auditors and tech staff were always paid the worst. This was always a mystery to me as it took years to become an auditor yet some new kid could get posted on an exec post and make 3 x what auditors made.

- Is income tax deducted?

Yes, but it was hardly ever deducted. Who pays tax on $1000 a year?

- Does CoS pay its share of compulsory Superannuation?

You are joking right?

Hours and Leave
- examples of hours worked by staff

Post time was 8.30am - 6.00pm. You were supposed to get a lunch break but nobody ever did. It you were in training in the academy they'd give you 5 minutes sometimes to eat something before marching you into a room to do letter writing or call in for events.

These are the core hours. In truth people worked much MUCH longer hours than these. From 1996 onwards after the GAT came out, my ex was working 80 - 90 hours per week, plus trying to wog job at nights and weekends, plus we had a newborn.

- amount of time off?

2 weeks per year which had to be approved of by the Execs. Of course these were never approved and hence no one took any time off. In 7 years I took a two week holiday to get married and have a honeymoon. That was it. Even after I had a child I was expected back on post after 6 weeks. I know some people who had worked there for 10 or 20 years that had never taken a holiday. I mean why would you? You can't afford to go anywhere and it was impossible to get approval.

- paid sick leave or holidays?

SICK LEAVE!!!!???? :lol:

If you took any time off for being sick you had the Ethics offficer at your door by lunch time demanding your overts or who you had gone PTS to.

People would go to work every day VERY SICK and just soldier on.

In 7 years I had one day off sick and lived to regret it. It was just easier to go in to the Org.


Abuse
- any examples of unfair treatment, unreasonable demands, cruel punishment etc

Oh Jesus don't get me started.

How about forcing mothers away from newborns for 6 months at a time?

How about refusing to let people go to funerals on post time?

How about making people work 90 hours a week and expecting them to make a living outside the church whilst only paying them a pittance?

I missed my daughters first birthday due to being forced to go to Sydney for an ethics cycle.

How about being screamed at and abused if you said you wanted to leave?

What about being publically humilated by having your "overts" whispered about in earshot.

You have no idea. I can't type them all out. There are so many that I've forgotten most of them.
 

shader

Patron with Honors
Thank you so much.

Again, Emma, the Class V Staff pay and conditions are worse than I imagined, and I imagined it would be pretty bad.

It is criminal that you should be subjected to that kind of treatment.

I won't say anymore until I've done a bit more research.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
Thank you so much.

Again, Emma, the Class V Staff pay and conditions are worse than I imagined, and I imagined it would be pretty bad.

It is criminal that you should be subjected to that kind of treatment.

I won't say anymore until I've done a bit more research.

:thumbsup: Thanks for your work on this.
 

SabinaM

Patron
-amount of time off?

2 weeks per year which had to be approved of by the Execs. Of course these were never approved and hence no one took any time off. In 7 years I took a two week holiday to get married and have a honeymoon. That was it. Even after I had a child I was expected back on post after 6 weeks. I know some people who had worked there for 10 or 20 years that had never taken a holiday. I mean why would you? You can't afford to go anywhere and it was impossible to get approval.

When my mother, who was on staff at Melbourne, was pregnant with me, she had to CSW to go into hospital and have me. It was disapproved. She ended up having to blow so I wouldn't end up being born in HCO. So, so messed up.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
When my mother, who was on staff at Melbourne, was pregnant with me, she had to CSW to go into hospital and have me. It was disapproved. She ended up having to blow so I wouldn't end up being born in HCO. So, so messed up.

Unreal!
I blew Melbourne when I was 5 months pregnant.
Under doctor's orders I applied for a Leave of Absence and it was not okayed. In fact I was screamed at and called every name under the sun and told I was a "bad hat" because I wanted to leave when things were going so well, and that's when SPs blew. (This was 1982 mind you. :melodramatic: )

I wasn't blowing, I was asking for leave to have a safe pregnancy and healthy baby, and there were urgent medical reasons for that. I walked out. A mess for sure, but I recovered eventually and concentrated on motherhood.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
I was still on post at 41 weeks pregnant (my daughter was 10 days overdue).

Each day I was walking to the train station (up hill), waiting for a train, travelling in a crowded train to work where virtually no one gave up their seat, walking from the train station to the Org, then up 3 flights of stairs to walk around ALL day because I was a course sup. Then doing it all in reverse on the way home. Then I was cleaning offices at night with my husband just to survive.

When my doctor finally ORDERED me to stay home and rest I had to call the Org and tell them. I remember crying on the phone to try to get some sympathy from the ED to allow me to have the time off.

My daughter was born 3 days later by emergency C section.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
When my mother, who was on staff at Melbourne, was pregnant with me, she had to CSW to go into hospital and have me. It was disapproved. She ended up having to blow so I wouldn't end up being born in HCO. So, so messed up.

This does not surprise me at all. Was Cheryl Wickens the ED?
 

SabinaM

Patron
Unreal!
I blew Melbourne when I was 5 months pregnant.
Under doctor's orders I applied for a Leave of Absence and it was not okayed. In fact I was screamed at and called every name under the sun and told I was a "bad hat" because I wanted to leave when things were going so well, and that's when SPs blew. (This was 1982 mind you. :melodramatic: )

I wasn't blowing, I was asking for leave to have a safe pregnancy and healthy baby, and there were urgent medical reasons for that. I walked out. A mess for sure, but I recovered eventually and concentrated on motherhood.

Your situation was almost exactly the same as my mothers. She spent hours in the ED office getting screamed at and told she was an SP, non-producer, etc. To this day she feels upset if she's in a room with walls that are the same colour as the ED's office was (that hideous orange-creamish colour it was back in the '80s).

When her mother died she had to "blow" so she could go to the funeral.

Shader, I remembered something that happened while I was in the SO that is along the lines of what you were asking. One of my friends got pregnant while she was in the SO and got in a ton of ethics trouble because she refused to have an abortion. She and her husband were put on what is called a Non-Enturbulation Order, which means that if one single report is written on them about something bad one or both of them has done, they will get instantly declared SP. They weren't allowed to speak to each other for months and they weren't allowed to sleep in the same room or have any contact with each other at all. They made a lot of noise and eventually they were allowed to leave because it was too much trouble trying to keep them at the Base, but they're stuck with a combined Freeloader bill of over $20,000 AUD.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
This does not surprise me at all. Was Cheryl Wickens the ED?

Ah yes.
I'm pretty sure she was when I was there.
My senior was Elaine Allen though.

Cheryl's son was given special treatment at the Scio school though. Different rules huh?

Maybe we could find enough people to start a Melbourne Mothers Survival Despite Scientology Club.
/rant
 

SabinaM

Patron
This does not surprise me at all. Was Cheryl Wickens the ED?

No, this was in the late '80s before she was ED. I forget the EDs name but it was a man, and I think he had a plain first name like Joe or Tom and his last name started with P and sounded vaguely Italian. I may be way off, though. I wish I remembered what it was. He's public, now, although I don't think he's very active in the field.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
Ah yes.
I'm pretty sure she was when I was there.
My senior was Elaine Allen though.

Cheryl's son was given special treatment at the Scio school though. Different rules huh?

Maybe we could find enough people to start a Melbourne Mothers Survival Despite Scientology Club.
/rant

The last I heard was that Elaine Allen was RPF'ed in LA somewhere.

Cheryl & Tony Wickens didn't have a boy, they had two girls who never went to Yarralinda and were NEVER allowed to be recruited for staff or the SO. Neither Cheryl or Tony had any problem in recruiting other people's kids or letting SO recruiters steal other people's kids away, but they protected their own kids fiercely. It was one of the hypocrisies that I despised with those two.
 
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