CSIRO Threatens employee who seeks Comcare intervention
The following letter from CSIRO Senior Executive, Mr Trevor Heldt has been provided to Victims of CSIRO for publishing. This letter demonstrates the lengths that CSIRO will go to in order to intimidate its employees, particularly those that are exercising lawful rights, such as for example, submitting a compensation claim to Comcare or seeking to have a decision set aside in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Should CSIRO’s “legal eagles” have bothered to read the relevant Act, in this case, the Privacy Act, they would have formed the opinion that Dr Chyb was well within his rights to disclose this confidential report to his solicitor, Comcare and the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal in pursuing legitimate administrative and judicial actions.
It is strange than an organisation which so tightly controls the flow of information and is so willing to litigate to protect its own intellectual properties, employs legal counsel that seem not to have bothered consulting the appropriate legislation before firing off such a highly intimidating, legalistic letter with absolutely no legal basis to support it in doing so.
Unsurprisingly, this action never went beyond threatening letters from legal types who really should have better things to do!
Surely the least Dr Chyb should be able to expect from Mr Heldt is a heart felt apology for the baseless threats that he was responsible for issuing.
We though Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Operations, Mr Mike Whelan was having a personal joke at Wednesday’s Senate Estimates Committee hearing when, with quite a straight face, he informed the Committee that the CSIRO was a ‘Model Litigant’.
The contents of the letter below seem to suggest otherwise!
Letter from Heldt Grievance Report
Victims of Bullying, Harassment, and Victimisation in the CSIRO 
Another practice that I am aware CSIRO has tried on in the past 10 years: failing to pay out an employee’s entitlements at the end of their contract unless the employee went and signed additional ‘paperwork’. I received legal advice that this type of coercion is illegal. If you have signed documents under such circumstances and are not happy in relation to the documents that you did sign, it could be worth seeking legal advice to determine whether in fact you are actually bound by the documents you signed. Questions should be raised with respect to any legal counsel that has had input into the organisation’s activities during the period when such practices have been allowed to occur.
former employee
February 17, 2013
This explains why they are so deliberate in attempting to interfere with the investigation process. Filtering what gets passed on to the investigator would allow them to remove any incriminating evidence of this from consideration.
Administrator
February 17, 2013