Recently, I read a card issued by the Victorian Government headed “Discrimination. It’s still against the law.”, which went on to tell me about how I could appeal against prospective employers for refusing to employ people on the grounds of disability.
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I laughed bitterly. It may be against the law for employers to refuse to employ somebody on the grounds of disability: but PROVING it is difficult, and doesn’t get you far if you can. How do I know this? It’s called “personal experience”.
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Two of my disabilities are long-term. I wrecked my left shoulder irreparably in a workplace accident in 1982. My other long-term disability is a bowel problem that goes back to 1986. That causes balance problems, and occasional severe faints, although never at work, and my Doctor suggested in 1991 that I keep my balance by using a walking stick. Neither conditions have ever affected my ability to work.
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My brain is fine, just as fine as when I did my degree over twenty years ago, perhaps even better with the accumulation of work experience. I must have been fairly good at my previous job in the Public Service, because I’ve got an Australia Day Public Service Medal at home. I left my previous job because it was abolished; I couldn’t find another job in the Public Service; and my department made it crystal clear that they didn’t want me - they literally gave me no work to do. I was redundant.
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I’ve got a fairly good work record; my typing speed is about 70 wpm, with an accuracy rate of 95%; and I can work either as an accountant or as a writer, having considerable experience in both fields.
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So, why the discrimination?
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It seems to be a reflex thing. Part of it is my walking stick. One look at that walking stick is enough for a lot of employers. I discovered that most of them made the mental link “Walking Stick = Disability = Brain Damage”, which is pure bovine excretion, but it is a fact. One company, whom I can’t name for legal reasons, actually said as much to my face at the end of the interview. After a while, I started suffering from clinical depression.
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By late 2000, I had done two training courses, visited various professional agencies, and travelled up to 100 kilometers to attend interviews in Victoria, plus a couple interstate. No dice. By this time, my depression had become so bad that I sought professional help. This didn’t help me get a job, either. So I tried employment agencies for the disabled. The Disability employment agencies I visited are ‘interesting’. The first I visited were on the second floor of a building, and access was via a set of stairs that goes straight up from the street into their offices. They were the nearest ones to me, but I had trouble getting into their offices. The only other local disability agency wanted to see my driver’s license (!). As I have never had a driver’s license, they were obviously out. (How many disabled people do drive?)
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However, I then discovered that disability employment agencies are really aimed at the brain-damaged. They didn’t seem to know what to do with an intelligent, well-qualified disabled person.
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Nor is volunteering the answer: I tried that, and ran into the same prejudices I ran into when seeking work.
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In mid-2001, I made my position worse on a wet night by tripping over the dog when taking out the rubbish. At first, I thought I had twisted my ankle badly. I had, but there was still something wrong a month later. X Rays showed a broken bone in my foot. I went to Hospital, and went on a waiting list. By the time they got to me, they found that the bone had healed – badly. This was deemed inoperable. I now need the walking stick for two conditions.
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After two years, and several hundred job applications, which lead to over 200 interviews, I had a breakdown – a bad one – which did make me unemployable. Two employment agencies confirmed this for me, not that I really needed the confirmation.
I’m now recovering mentally. I successfully ran an insanely popular blog during the last Federal Election. I’m still unemployable because of my physical disabilities, a fact confirmed by both various employment agencies and Centerlink’s Work Capacity Assessment (although my major mental problem at the moment is a lack of self-confidence: a job would help me to overcome that). Having been a writer outside the Public Service for almost thirty years, I decided to try self-employment. I’m slowly getting going there.
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Did I report any of my prospective employers for disability discrimination? You bet. What happened? Well, just try to prove it. Unless you’ve got a witness on your side – or you’ve taped the interview, which I took to doing – you can’t prove it. The ones I could prove nearly got me into trouble for taping the interviews (I did ask before I did it), and lead to a couple of people getting a nasty letter from the relevant Government agency: rather akin to being thrashed with a limp lettuce leaf. No job, of course.
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I really hate to think what is happening to those who are brain-damaged. I know a few, and they’re struggling: however, they can go to disability workshops for a diversion. I couldn’t do manual work even if I wanted to. It’s not entirely my disabilities, although that’s part of it – I simply don’t have the talent or the patience for that line of work.
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I’m lucky in that I have a place to stay and supportive parents who are still alive. Many have neither, as I’m acutely aware. I prefer not to think too far into my future, for obvious reasons.
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Most of us living on the Disability Support Pension would rather not be on the pension. We don’t have an option if we want to pay our bills, and to do things like keeping a roof over our head, eating, and, in my (and many other) cases, buy a particularly expensive medication that is effective, but not on the PBS.
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We don’t not want to work: employers will not employ us. That’s the ugly fact. Period.
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