legal advice much needed - help!
 

hi
i was working for a company under a 457 visa in australia and things went sour, i hated my job and decided to look for another as my profession is on the skills shortage list.
thinking i could change to another sponsor (which happens regularly im told) i was offered a job in a state away from my then current employer.

my employer at the time found out and threatened legal action against me for wanting to go to a competiton, they threatened my new sponsor making up a story that i was in breach of confidentiality etc. as such i lost my new sponsor.

having annual leave (holiday to the uk) booked long in advance i was put on suspension and my leave cancelled, i could not change my flights and arrangements and was sacked for not making myself available to a follow up meeting

i returned to oz 2 weeks later and resumed my search for a new sponsor - my ex employer contacted all the companies in my industry spreading that i was a risk and i owed them over $100,000 in damages.. none of which was true.

my partner and i ran out of money and had to leave the country before the dept of immigration threw us out. i had to sell both our cars taking a loss of over $27,000 and lost most of my savings supporting us and moving our possessions overseas

we gained employment in new zealand and whilst going through the visa process (in south africa) my ex employer found out. he contacted the NZ immigration in south africa and made up a huge pack of lies about my past, how i stole from them, how i owe them money and how i am a risk to new zealand. this i have in writing. they also names and shamed my girlfriend who had nothing to do with anything.

luckily i managed to convince the dept of immigration that i was genuine and that my ex employer had a thorn in his side over me leaving the company.

my question to the forum is, does anyone have any advice on how to handle this... ive lost a huge amount of money and now wont be able to get a job in australia due to the defamation from my ex employer.

what could i possibly do about this??

any advice would be greatly appreciated

regards

chris

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

What a bizarre story, I cannot even begin to imagine why an employer would be so angry at somebody leaving or why they would have the time or energy to contact NZ about it. I am thinking this must be a wind up? If not, well then I think you need real legal advice not opinions from a forum. I expect the avenues you need to look into are libel, slander and maybe you need to consider some kind of injunction. If there is truth in the employer claims then it is a lesson on why it is always a bad idea to leave an employer on bad terms, no matter how much you disliked them or the job.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-nz; Garmin-Asus A10 Build/DRC79) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1; A10-V3.11.3-user-20100620)

Thanks bermuda shorts. I'm afraid this isn't a wind up at all.

I was the sales manager slash trainer slash business development manager for this company and the boss took the stance that if he couldn't have me then no one in Australia would either.

I was the top earner for the business and turned the company round with my efforts. The boss was an absolute tyrant to work for and I was tired of doing the work of three people.

I'm wondering if anyone has been defamed overseas in a similar manner and if they had any success fighting their case.

I'm away from australia

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

What a terrible story, sorry to hear that you're going through this. I'm afraid that I'm not surprised to hear that this has happened, there are some very vindictive people about. Do you have in writing everything that this ex-employer has said and done, eg have you written to every alternative employer in the industry, asking for their written response to what they've been told? How do you know that they've been contacted by your ex-employer? Have you written up a log/record of all that's happened?

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

hi helen

thanks for the reply

yes i have in writing much of the slander as he was foolish enough to sen his accusations to the nz dept of immigration in writing, they gave me the emails showing everything.

whilst in south africa i ran the case past a corporate lawyer who is a friend of my partners family - he said i have a solid case as the guy has gone at me with malicious intent, even after i left the country.

i also have proof of him contacting the companies in my industry. my partner and i managed to have 4 job interviews and were offered 4 positions, however these were pulled from us after he contacted them. i have some of the evidence of what he said but many of the companies have stonewalled me.

.... id love to hear your thoughts

thanks

chris

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

Have you been in touch with fairwork australia?

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

Well, how could he know you had an interview or were offered a job at a competitor to contact them unless you told him? Did you use him as a reference? If he had contacted every competitor in the business then surely nobody would have offered you an interview, never mind a job!

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

Have you ever heard of 'restraint of trade'? I'm not sure if you can sure for damages.

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

its a small industry with just 6 main players. the GM's all know one another through lobbying the government etc....

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

thanks steve. ive since had to leave the country and was wondering if im closing the gate after the horse has bolted or if there's hope for possibly salvaging my reputation/reclaiming losses.....

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

yes i contacted them and started a case, unfortunately i had missed their 28 day window, i then had to drop the case completely as my focus shifted to finding a job elsewhere and relocating overseas again

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

That was a bit of a brain fart on my part, I apologise. I think 'restraint of trade' protects the employer rather than the employee, it would only be applicable if he were trying to sue you (I think). It sounds like you need to talk to a lawyer. Litigation is expensive though so you may want to think long and hard before pursuing and have a clear objective. Leaving the country should not have any bearing on your case.

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

thanks steve, thats been the info ive received so far and currently my funds cant support a litigation case irrespective of a guarantee of success.. im keen to see if theres an alternative?? otherwise it would be a pretty empty threat if i say im going to sue..

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

That's too often the case with employment contract issues. Maybe you need to wait until you have funds or maybe look for some free legal advice for starters. There should be community organsiations in NZ that help out with legal aid. I get the impression that 'no foal, no fee' lawyers are a little dodgy so maybe avoid them.

Re: legal advice much needed - help!
 

So why not just explain your situation to the ones who've offered you jobs? :confused:

Gotta admit it does sound a little fishy to me, but I've been wrong before. Once.