The Bollywood Crew - Pink Collar Workers

Worker One: The Wife of Vigilant Husband

Cat and mouse – until Chris arrived on the scene

The Bollywood Crew

LESSON: They are not doing it to obtain footage on you; they already have enough of that. They are doing it to harass you. The whistleblower from Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia, has a wife he calls Tiny. Nicknamed to match her tiny stature and quiet ways, he recounts hundreds of hours of Private Investigators (PIs) of monitoring, stalking, and acts designed to intimidate. These people, if you could call them that, because they are hired goons designed to follow, obtain footage, and squash victims into the ground, grinding into a state of fatigue, hoping that the target will give in and go away. Often, they do exactly that. There are many of us out there, but very few of us are public and, out of that group, very few make it to the end. This is our story, but one that has silenced many people, made them feel unsafe, and left them unwilling to speak up for one reason: FEAR.

1. How we met

An online support group for workers either in or about to enter the Workers Compensation schemes, state-based, and different damages, damages awarded, and ways of accounting for these decisions, with limited accountability.

2. Industry

Not applicable to this story.

3. The Cognitive Dissonance

The reality that a male, who was not the victim of a workplace injury, but was left to handle the fallout of his wife’s injury and diagnosis, only to have repeated acts of stalking, safety measures required beyond comprehension, and a story no one would believe, until we met.

4. Guns For Hire

People with too much time, access to resources they should not and the willingness to shoot should not be unregulated, in any industry, at any time. The Workers Compensation industry has the power to investigate any matter, as it should. It’s an insurance claim. Fraud exists in every industry and all insurance arenas. Their power has been extended beyond the purpose it was meant. One worker, in our support group, posted a story, a PI caught halfway up the tree, fell out when the worker, at home on a remote property, popped out and waved at him. Caught trying to film her, her own home, well beyond the allocated role, was performing an illegal act, but in doing so, it set off a chain of events for everyone in this group. The fact that they have snitches and spies, in a support group, of equal concern, led to many people posting anonymously, some of the iCare Case Managers being caught spying on people’s social media posts, then kicked out, has led to more disclosures of people being hunted and harassed using PIs to monitor insurance claims and workers.

5. Who has the power?

The insurance company, starting with the likes of iCare, dropped down to a subsidiary called EML, and their legal team, Gair Legal, along with PIs of all types, have power, too much power, and, in an industry that is not regulated, a scary amount of power. As for the male who is trying to protect his wife, he is correct, and one that sits at the core of fundamental rights:

The right to be safe at home, at work, and when seeking medical support

There are anecdotal allegations that some workers have been sent for an Independent Medical Exam (IME) and sent to an external treating professional, denied the right to access support in the safety of their own home, even though online forums are available, both in reality and to other injured workers, only to incur large costs for the insurance companies, but with little consideration of the impact of the stress and pressure placed on a worker who has already been injured in some capacity; some lacking physical capacity, a diagnosis of anxiety disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and various other disorders, many directly linked to being injured at work.

6. Lesson: It is only once these stories are highlighted do we realise how unregulated this industry is

This couple is married and happy, albeit stressed due to continued imposition by people who have no right to be there, and face being followed from their front door to the car as PIs pull out their cameras and shoot. They are followed from the house to external places, such as key medical appointments for the wife, shopping for groceries together for support, and being tracked and traced when visiting family on the weekend. CCTV cameras have caught these people filming from near and far, walking past repeatedly each day, driving past and filming, as well as using food delivery drivers to log the time and date of their delivery.

The level of intrusion, lack of privacy, and sheer audacity knows no bounds, and, for that reason, legislative change is needed regulate an industry with too much power, the ability to hide behind excuses and, in the case of my former employer, the HSU, ‘We weren’t down at the beach to find Ms. Gleeson. We were down there for business.’ Except they turned up when I was looking after others’ pets, not at my place of residence, found me while en route from the beach to a place, not my place of residence, and went on to obtain court orders against me, after I caught them one time too many on my camera. Oh, and if you are facing stalking for any reason, always keep your camera with you, always charged, and consider buying a power pack. I have three. Turns out there is no bullet in these weapons, but a group of us with our sights set on the goal: PUT THESE PEOPLE IN THEIR PLACE SO THEY KNOW TO NEVER PERFORM A STUNT LIKE THIS, EVER AGAIN.

7. What we have in common

We both have extensive lived experience in online and in-person safety. We know what is being done. We are not idiots. We have strong emotion regulation and a level of control that most do not. We are pushed. It is deliberate. It is designed by design, with the intent to harm. The motive is unknown but irrelevant here. What is important is that these people know what they are doing. We know they know, they know we know. We all know. It is a case of no one wants to do anything. It is why we take things into our own hands. We created this together.

Way Forward

A character of such nature must be avoided at all costs. This is not a person offering portions of misguided advice that is packaged as concern. It is not mishearing what is being said. This is being baited. A character of such nature must be avoided at all costs. This misguided advice is on offer, packaged as concern. It is not mishearing what is being said. This is being baited to drive a reaction of any kind. In the case of Tiny and acts of harassment, the people seek to create distress, at any cost. In the words of her husband, they are murderers in disguise, and he is right. To move past these people, black and delete, both in real life and online. Don’t repeat what you’ve said. A person determined to misunderstand will.