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Fair Work Ombusdman Report - Australia: CoS in breach

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
I think that there are some major advances, such as the FWO's finding that the CoS is a trading organisation, that even as a church they are bound by the FW Act (within time limitations) and other earlier legislation, that the CoS's blanket denial that their "staff" are all "volunteers" should not be taken as a given, that there are six other claims before the FWO, that the Ombudsman has serious concerns about a longstanding pattern in the CoS's employment practices, etc. Even though most of the witnesses' claims aren't getting up because of time limitations, one still is -- and it only takes one spark to light a fire.

I'm optimistic that this report, together with the Slater & Gordon suit, will make a difference.

Exactly.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
No love it's not a win for them....

The very thought of a consultant and deciding 'employment status' is HUGE HUGE HUGE! :happydance:

ps I kinda didn't understand what you said, can you splain in little words for my tired brain ? :biggrin:
I think they will be asking each new complainant questions about what they thought they were getting into. Were they expecting to be paid (even a small amount?) or Were they expecting just to work for free? Did they think this was a job or a career? Was it a religious calling and not a job? Was it a religious calling AND a job? Or did they think of it differently? Something like that.

Depending upon the answers to those questions, the FWO will or will not act.
 
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J. Swift

Patron with Honors
"The allegations ... may potentially be a breach of the provisions of the Criminal Code Act 1995 dealing with slavery ... the Fair Work Ombudsman will refer the witnesses' allegations to the relevant authority for further investigation," ABC Television quoted the draft report as saying....
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...ms/story-e6frfku0-1226136433924#ixzz1Y5wwNACf

Slavery?

Of course it is.

This is all heading towards a class action lawsuit and criminal charges against the Cult for slavery -- which of course will make CoS insane such that it will behave insanely and violently. All hell will break loose inside of CoS because this report was not handled, sabotaged, or bribed out of existence.

*****
This will keep getting bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, Miscavige remains out of sight. Will he send the Sea Org wives and Norman Starkey down under to swear that the Cult is just and humane in its employment practices? Or will the Lunatic Antichrist of Hemet simply send crazy old Ed Bryan to Australia to rifle through the government's trash in search of badges that will get him into the Fair Work Ombudsman's office where he can scream at people?

Impact-1.png



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Free to shine

Shiny & Free
I think they will be asking each new complainant questions about what they thought they were getting into. Were they expecting to be paid (even a small amount?) or Were they expecting just to work for free? Did they think this was a job or a career? Or did they think of it differently? Something like that.

Depending upon the answers to those questions, the FWO will or will not act.

Thanks. That would be brilliant. I can't think of anyone who joined staff not expecting to get paid something...and thinking it was a career.... we were told staff pay was a percentage of the Corrected Gross Income for the week and with all the rah rah normal expectations were something more than $2. :ohmy:
 

Zhent

Leakus Maximus
Well I finished reading the report, though I am not too sure what to make of it.

There was certainly some great and and hard-hitting statements made by the FWO in relation to CoS practices, they are trading corporations bound by the FW act etc, however I was disappointed only 8 witnesses (ex's) came forward for the report, none of which apparently can have their claims forwarded. What happened to the 100's who left in the Australian exodus? Why were their voices and experiences not heard? Of course we now have the Class Action lawsuit, but if they didn't come forward for the investigation why participate now?

And then of course there are the CoS finances. WTF! Having serious trouble trying to wrap my head around this. The Leichhardt mission makes enough sense... $39418 income, $38478 expenses, $910 profit... easy and simple enough and clear indication that business is slow to say the least (a few hours auditing a week???).

But the 'Church of Scientology Australia Inc' statements... $8 million surplus for 2009? Where is the (Sydney) Ideal Org? Why is it suddenly up 800% from 2008?
$32 million in cash in the bank, and its UP from last year? Again where is the Ideal Org?
Why is all this money building up and not being invested back into the church?

The external picture (through leaks and otherwise) is one of hardship and crisis for the church (at least in Sydney), these financial records show otherwise. Methinks there is some playing going on with the finances that regular Scientologists are not suppose to know about...

Heres another gem: $29 million liability in 2009 for 'Members contributions received in advance' - WTF!!


Anyway, I would like to hear some in-depth discussion from others on the finer points of this report :)
 

J. Swift

Patron with Honors
I hope we see DM get "25 to Life" in Australia for slavery and human trafficking. Once he gets his stage sets shipped into prison, he can do IAS fundraisers by webcam from the prison block. The time has come to see this monster imprisoned:

25toLife.png


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Karen#1

Gold Meritorious Patron
This will keep getting bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, Miscavige remains out of sight. Will he send the Sea Org wives and Norman Starkey down under to swear that the Cult is just and humane in its employment practices? Or will the Lunatic Antichrist of Hemet simply send crazy old Ed Bryan to Australia to rifle through the government's trash in search of badges that will get him into the Fair Work Ombudsman's office where he can scream at people?

Impact-1.png



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It was worse, a lot worse than not being paid a FAIR WAGE.
In many cases it was outright slavery.
SEA Org = SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND SLAVE LABOR.

A "Volunteer" does not get denied Annual Leave.
There are almost no days off, and 3 weeks annual leave is just about unheard of.
I am guessing that Australia parallels the way it it is played out in the US.

A "Volunteer" has freedom to come and go. Volunteers do not have their passports confiscated and are not IMPRISONED in the RPF.

I feel sad that Martin Bentley who had to live on the street after 35 years of service will never be compensated for his years of dedication and died before he could see todays findings.

I am doubly sad that Paul Schobel was discarded out of the Sea Org, a shell of his former self and ended his own life tragically without the Sea Org paying his medical.

These 2 Aussies who have passed should have lived to see this day
How proud they would have been for all of you down under who pulled this off.
 

Veda

Sponsor
-snip-

the Lunatic Antichrist of Hemet

-snip-

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The developments in Australia don't have much to do with Marty Rathbun.

Is calling Miscavige the Antichrist of Hemet something new? It's cute the way it positions Hubbard as the Christ, with Marty Rathbun being Martin Luther and all.

It's too late to glom onto something that is the result of the hard work of other people who are not caught up in the current Rathbun/Miscavige Scientology feud.
 

scooter

Gold Meritorious Patron
I was gutted when I read the report today.:bigcry:

I don't feel that way now, I feel we just didn't get as big a victory as we'd expected it to be, given the draft report.:yes:

Cult definitely didn't win.:no:

If nothing else, the draft being leaked showed exactly what this multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation is doing. And the way the cult has tried to "PR" this has just made it worse for them in the last few days.:omg:

This is a battle for truth - every time something comes out that exposes even a sliver of the REAL $cientology, we win.:happydance:
 

Veda

Sponsor
The final report has just been released.

Inter Alia:


  • The Statement of Findings says the Fair Work Ombudsman considered, but was not persuaded, by submissions from the CoS that the Fair Work Act did not apply because the church “is a religious entity ... and there isn’t any worker relationship or employer relationship”.
  • The Statement says documents and policies examined by Fair Work inspectors during the course of their investigation “plainly contradicted” this assertion.
  • The CoS described payments to church workers as being “a small amount to enable them to perform their duties by covering the cost of travel, babysitters, food and other expenses ... not a reward for services rendered”.
  • However, the investigation found several features of the arrangements within the CoS entities were not consistent with volunteer or voluntary work.
  • “In particular, witness evidence indicates that significant hours of work were imposed on workers. Further evidence indicates a significant level of control and direction was applied to workers by more senior church members who held positions of authority,” the Statement of Findings says.
  • The Statement says documents provided by the CoS indicate it is a “bureaucratised organisation” which appears to have imported practices and procedures into Australia with little thought to workplace relations laws.
  • Witnesses told the Fair Work Ombudsman they were directed to work up to 72 hours without a break to complete tasks assigned to them for as little as $10 a week at a time when the Federal Minimum Wage for a full-time adult before shift and weekend penalties was $543.78 for a 38-hour week.
  • The Statement of Findings says the complaints that have been investigated, and the receipt of further complaints, is indicative of systemic problems relating to the way labour has been obtained by the CoS and which has caused these arrangements to be the subject of external criticism.
  • "At the very least, the volume of complaints should alert the CoS that there needs to be a change to the current practices relating to how they recruited and are receiving free labour from their followers, should they hope to reduce the number of complaints into the future,” the Statement says.
  • “Equally, the Fair Work Ombudsman offers advice to persons giving their labour for free to any religious organisation that they should be mindful of their intentions in doing so and to the extent possible, protect their own interests and immediately withdraw their labour if they perceive that their relationship ceases to be truly voluntary.
  • “In many instances, the witnesses provided considerable free labour to the CoS over a period of several years where they either knew or ought to have known that they were unlikely to be paid for that work from an early stage.
  • “Some claimed the use of unconscionable tactics by the CoS designed to retain their commitment. The Fair Work Ombudsman makes no findings in respect of those allegations, but advises that if workers providing services to religious or any other organisation consider that they are being subjected to intimidation or other illegal pressure to continue to provide their labour, they should contact police.”
The full media statement is here: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/media-ce...Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=NewsTW

The full report is here: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Document...logy Narconon and Get off Drugs Naturally.pdf

Happy reading.

This is good news.

For some reason, Hubbard's "religion angle" does not work as well in Australia as it does in the USA.

:happydance:
 

MrNobody

Who needs merits?
Well I have nothing to contribute to this thread, so let me just say that I have tremendous respect for each and every one involved in this. My hat's off to all of you.

:hattip:
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
I was gutted when I read the report today.:bigcry:

I don't feel that way now, I feel we just didn't get as big a victory as we'd expected it to be, given the draft report.:yes:

Cult definitely didn't win.:no:

If nothing else, the draft being leaked showed exactly what this multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation is doing. And the way the cult has tried to "PR" this has just made it worse for them in the last few days.:omg:

This is a battle for truth - every time something comes out that exposes even a sliver of the REAL $cientology, we win.:happydance:

The thing that is difficult for people to understand - in the normal world - is why people stayed. Until the full extend of the brainwashing and the policies of disconnection and so on are understood, it's a hard one.

I take this as a great leap forward. The walls crumble a brick at a time.... and it's going to be fun to watch them try and say who is a volunteer with FW looking over their shoulder :)
 

MostlyLurker

Patron Meritorious
[...]
  • “Some claimed the use of unconscionable tactics by the CoS designed to retain their commitment. The Fair Work Ombudsman makes no findings in respect of those allegations, but advises that if workers providing services to religious or any other organisation consider that they are being subjected to intimidation or other illegal pressure to continue to provide their labour, they should contact police.”
[...]


No findings? What about freeloader bills? How much Co$ threaten to charge staff that wants to leave? I wonder why Fair Work Ombudsman has no findings about that. :-(
 

Zhent

Leakus Maximus
I was gutted when I read the report today.:bigcry:

I don't feel that way now, I feel we just didn't get as big a victory as we'd expected it to be, given the draft report.:yes:

I guess we have to ask now, what was the difference between the draft and final report? How has CoS managed to strong-arm the FWO into watering down the report (how WAS it watered down?) ?
 
Just an impression so far.......


The big win for past slaves may not be very big at all, financially, but if the class action thing is a completely different kettle of fish from the FWO's pronouncements, I could be wrong.

However, future slaves will HAVE to be informed of the category they are in, whether it be voluntary, paid worker, or whatever. And in future, if someone is under the impression that they were voluntary when they were technically a paid worker, and they leave and complain, the COS WILL have to pay up because they are now required to correctly inform workers of their status.

2 cents.
 

Freeminds

Bitter defrocked apostate
Evidence presented in this WWP thread shows that the Scientology cult is still scamming for "volunteers" using grossly misleading advertisements in Scotland and the USA.

("Volunteers needed! ... Contract type: Permanent")

Bleh.

I suppose that's actually a good thing, because it shows that Miscavige's organization could encounter the Australian Problem elsewhere at any time.
 

Jump

Operating teatime
This is good news.

For some reason, Hubbard's "religion angle" does not work as well in Australia as it does in the USA.

:happydance:

<Sounds of chickens coming home to roost..>

Quote from Xenophon's speech to Australian Parliament November 17, 2009:
"Scientology is not a religious organisation. It is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.

What you believe does not mean you are not accountable for how you behave.

The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contain extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking — crimes against them and crimes they say they were coerced into committing.

There are allegations of false imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation, blackmail and the widespread and deliberate abuse of information obtained by the organisation.

It is alleged that information about suspicious deaths and child abuse has been destroyed, and one follower has admitted he was coerced by the organisation into perjuring himself during investigations into the deaths of his two daughters.

These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organisation, and that criminality is condoned at the highest levels."



- Critics complained that this was an outrageous abuse of Parliamentary Privilege.
 

xseaorguk

Patron Meritorious
how do you then explain that some of the top execs in the $ea Org get a reasonably good "wage" and people lower down do not?
Are they not ALL "volunteers"?

In other legal charities you will have a certain amount of payed employees and whole lot of volunteers.

I got the impression from my time in the SO, that none of this was in writing.
I also signed nothing about becoming a volunteer.

Do UK SO members now have to sign these documents?
 
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