A New Form of Bullying Identified.
MEDIA RELEASE
Monday, 16 December, 2002
(For immediate release)
The current pursuit of the family of smoking victim Rolah McCabe
for court costs is financial bullying, says Sheila Freeman, Director
of Creative Concepts Consulting Pty Ltd, and co-author with Helene
Richards of "Bullying in the Workplace: An Occupational
Hazard" (HarperCollins 2002).
British American Tobacco (BAT) is ruthless, she says. In order to
make them an example of what the company can do to anyone else who
attempts to sue them for damages, BAT is willing to destroy the
financial future, and possibly the mental health, of these young
people. "They are very vulnerable at present, unable to
properly grieve for their parents because of this threat hanging
over their heads."
"This persecution of the McCabe children is a classic case
of financial bullying," Ms Freeman says. "My colleague
Helene Richards and I identified this form of bullying while
researching our book. It mostly occurs when organizations use a
person's lack of financial resources to force them to withdraw a
claim against that organization. Unfortunately, we are seeing and
reading more of this type of ruthless behaviour every day."
WorkCover, or their insurers, often financially bully genuinely
injured workers, Ms Freeman believes, and in some instances this
leads to the loss of the worker's home, marriage breakdowns, family
violence and, in extreme cases, suicide or attempted suicide.
"As a financial counsellor," she adds, "I have
clients from all types of employment, including local government,
the welfare sector and the construction industry. Often these
workers suffer a work injury that affects their physical or
emotional health, yet their claims are denied. With no money coming
in, they are forced to go to the Magistrates Court. The WorkCover
insurers have the ability to draw the case out for months, even
years, causing a massive blowout of legal costs. This, I believe is
done intentionally; they rely on the fact that most claimants,
fearful of losing the case and having to pay court costs, which
could be as high as $60,000, decide to withdraw their claims."
Referring to the recently released the Victorian WorkCover
Authorities (VCA) statistics, she says, "The Authority lost $98
million during the last financial year. Why? Because they spent the
massive amount of $93 million on lawyers to contest workers' claims
(eventually having to pay out $106 million to workers whose claims
were proved to be genuine) and only $34.6 million on the
rehabilitation of injured workers."
WorkCover is supposed to help sick workers, but in reality only
increases their stress with these bullying tactics. As a victim of
workplace bullying who took her case to court, Ms Freeman speaks
with authority. She firmly believes that organisations and companies
need to be made accountable for their actions.
This press release was distributed by Get
The Word Out. An internet-based press
release distribution service for Australia.
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