I have a brother who is battling to feed his family in the Phillipines. There was an accident involving his son, his step-son and a family friend where the three of the boys were on a motor scooter. A banana truck coming from the opposite direction over took a jeep and hit the boys head on. It was carnage and there was a god almighty battle to save the boys lives. My brother had to leave his work in Australia and fly back to the Phillipines to try to save them.

My brother spent every cent he had saving the lives of those boys and then continued to attend to his step-son who had contracted golden staff from the hospital on top of his injuries. Finally the boy was coming good so my brother came back to Australia to work. His natural born son had been transported back to Australia where the medical system was free. It was not the same for my brothers step-son and the friend who was on the bike with them. The bills were astronomical and every possible cent was spent to save them.

Superannuation gone and all of the resources he had to create an income gone.. having sold everything to save the lives of those boys..... my brother once again commenced work in Australia once again.

Whilst working in Oz my brother rented a room from our oldest brother and his ex wife. One night our older brother's ex wife came home from PI with a bee in her bonnet about our brother. She took that grievance out on my brother who was renting the room from her and threw him out in the freezing cold night of Canberra. I phoned everywhere in Canberra attempting to acquire a room or even a caravan for him. No such luck.. when parliament sits in Canberra there are no rooms available. My brother had no choice but to sleep in the work truck his boss had lent to him. When my brother was thrown out of the house he'd had a few too many home brews as well so it put him in a very bad position.

At 3am in the morning the police knocked on the window of the truck. They booked my brother DUI even though he was only sleeping in the truck. My brother was too honest and owned up to having the keys on him. We went to court and go off the fine but the judge suspended my brothers licence not realizing she was taking away his only way of feeding his family in the Phillipines.

My brother is now attempting to live on $100 pw and I am supporting him. I am on a pension with PTSD myself and I have not been able to find work either so times are tough. We have made thousands of applications for work online and gone around to local business.

Finally a fellow who has a steel engineering workshop in Byron Bay contacted my brother and offered him a couple of days work. This my brother did relieved thinking that he was on his way to commencing work again. After my brother had worked for two days rebuilding a trailer for a surf board hire company or scuba diving company.. we are not sure which.. the fellow who owned the place attempted to screw my brother down to $17 per hour which is not the award rate for a tradesman who is on casual. I told my brother to stick to his guns because fuel is expensive and it is a 70km round trip to get him there and back and fuel is expensive and by the time he declares what he's earned then there won't be much left.

Then what followed was this fellow constantly evading phone calls from my brother to find out when they were going to pay him. I had to acquire the taxation form and have it signed by my brother and post it to them because the office person failed to give my brother the form on commencement of work. Finally after so many weeks of not being paid and my brother sweating on that money because the pittance will make a difference in our lives and the lives of his family in PI, I decide to go and confront these people.

I went into the office. The office manager who is a really lovely fellow had a very red face with white rings around his eyes. I joked that he caught too much sun. The fellow standing next to him said to me whilst he was on the phone.. "that's not sunburn .. that is stress..." The office manager was so stressed his blood pressure was through the roof and it was showing on his face. He rang the person who handles the office and wages and sent me upstairs to talk to this person. This person promptly told me that my brother.. who is a tradesman of over 30 years.. who had always been valued by his previous employers to the point where they hold his job for him whilst he is OS... who had managed his own businesses whilst simultaneously managing pineapple farms for The Chairman of Gold Circle... was quote..."only doing work experience..." ??????

I was gobsmacked. My brother had worked two solid days for these people and they had collected good money for his work. I also know through references I am getting about them that they are not cheap.

I promptly told the office person that I would be going to the Fair Work Ombudsman. This person then said to me in an aggressive manner that quote..."you are picking on the wrong person." I promptly replied..."well you have picked on the wrong person too..." I then went down stair and told the office manager and person with him how this woman had spoken to me and attempted to intimidate me. They in unison replied..."this is how she speaks to us." This attitude was a standard in this workplace.