Please give your support to fight against discrimination of human rights and unfair suspension of work due to medical exemption and forcing to wear a mask in an unsafe work environment

Hi my name is Portia I’ve set up this cause on behalf of my partner who has been wrongfully suspended from work due to not wearing a mask under medical exemption and unsafe work environment. As most people know we are going through another lockdown and mask directives. William exercised his rights at work by letting his work know he is medically exempt from wearing a mask and cannot wear a mask due to unsafe environment he works on a high platform close to the roof in a factory, he is a machine operator and works with machinery and mixing food products. He works by himself and the temperature gets to 30 degrees in this working environment, he cannot breath in the mask while working. This is an extreme hazard to his health as if he fainted on the platform from not being able to breath he could fall off the platform become severely injured or possibly even death as it’s quite high.

William is within his rights to refuse to wear the mask under these grounds. I contacted the Queensland government and they assured me I was correct with the laws it states on there website

Copied and pasted straight from the website:
You must carry a face mask with you at all times. You must wear a face mask at all times when you are outside your home, unless:

- you are alone in your car or with the members of your household
- you are eating or drinking
- you are at your usual workplace and can physically distance from others (except if you work in a public-facing role in a hospitality venue or are a passenger transport operator)
- you are alone outdoors or exercising alone outdoors with members of your household. If you pass others, you must put on your mask
- it is unsafe.

We have given his work all the documents regarding his rights but they still refuse to accept it. Queensland government also informed us they breeched the privacy act of 1988 with requesting William to give them a medical exemption. By law they cannot ask for one and you do not need to give one. The health minister also said this in a press conference on the news.

Queensland government then referred me onto human rights commission as they could no longer help me further because it is now a legal matter. I contacted human rights commission and they informed me there has not only been a breech of privacy act but also a breech in the disability discrimination act of 1992 as they refused to accept William has medical reasons for being exempt from wearing a mask.

I then contacted fair work, work health safety and they said that they have breeched work health safety act failing to provide William with a safe working environment.

They have also breeched Williams permanent contract for his work.

I know we have a solid case and we have contacted the right legal teams to help us but due to the backlog of complaints in regards to human rights they’re extremely backlogged. So we will be without money for a uncertain amount of time we can’t afford to pay our bills or food we have three young children and we don’t get any assistance here as we are Nz citizens. We have lived here for 9 years.

If anyone could help we would be much appreciated anything will help big or small and if you can’t give anything that is 100% okay but we would absolutely love your supportive encouraging words to help get through this really stressful time.

William is going to try go back to his old job with an agency but we aren’t certain he can go back. So fingers crossed. Once the mask directives are over william can go back to work but that’s another two weeks. We don’t have any savings as we live pay check to pay check as we are on one income. We also were only clawing our way back from being forced out of our house due to the landlord selling the house from underneath us. We used all our money to move into a new house and William took a pay cut to secure a permanent job as the casual jobs he was in with the agency weren’t secure and he was constantly without work. We have honestly had it rough and are struggling to pick ourselves back up mentally, emotionally and financially. We had almost had our bills up to date before we got this thrown at us.

Thanks for listening to my story. I appreciate your support in any shape or form. Love and light and positive vibes is also a need right now. Thank you