•    I want to tell my story about how my employers never kept me safe and made me vulnerable for three months of ongoing harassment from a work colleague, who would harass and intimidate me on a daily basis which escalated as there were no enforced repercussion for his antisocial behaviour.    

•    Larry Thompson constantly blocked my exits, walked in front of me when I was walking through the workshop, would wait for me to leave the toilets and then walk towards me, put screens up and watch me through them.  I also had to be escorted to the toilets by another work colleague as he would just appear and scare me, Larry would on a daily basis bang on the office window, walk through my office constantly etc.

•     I filed a personal grievance when Larry walked up behind me and I could feel his breath, he threw a hammer down beside me. The company never kept me safe and never put measures in to protect me and to put a stop to his intimidation tactics.  I had several meetings and correspondence with the company, but after filing the personal grievance both Larry and I were made redundant.

•    Then began a two-year long legal proceeding.  

•    When the medias exploitation of my privacy, safety and exposure of my identity was made public, I was subjected to online harassment, stalking and feeding the online trolls with their misleading headlines.  This has coursed a lot of stress and had an impact of my health and wellbeing.

•    All this because Larry Thompson told two work colleagues, he had seen my “tits on tinder”.  (which was proven false).  I had to reopen my tinder profile and had to supply screen shots of my tinder profile, that had been deactivated for 2 years. All so I could prove to management, two separate ERA mediation meetings and ERA Court hearing, that I did not have my “Tits on Tinder”.  I was questioned about my tinder profile and photos at least 5 times and had to prove my integrity constantly.

•    The company was found guilty by the ERA outlined in a 17-page document and awarded me $45,000 (90% of this will cover my legal bills).  The redundancy was exposed by the ERA as an unjustified “sham”.  The company had never followed procedures correctly and caused unnecessary emotional harm and harassment.  I am now waiting to see if the company will pay out and if not, where to from here?  

•    They are not responding to my lawyer’s correspondence as the 28 days has expired.  My only option is to proceed through the District Courts.  I have run out financial resources and am unable to pursue options that will cost. The company is not complying with ERA’s ruling.   In my opinion Geoffrey Thomson, who owns BL Rayners 1993, is condoning harassment and an unsafe working environment by not complying with the ruling or responding to my lawyer’s correspondence.

•    I want to bring awareness to harassment and the bullying culture in the workplace. As a nation we need to work harder at keeping a healthy working environment.  Investigate a support network that everyone can access and have resources available for it to be a lot easier to seek advice.

•    With my photography project “What my breast means to me.” I was privileged enough to photograph a diverse range of woman, 26 women in total, one for each month of this ordeal.  They shared their personal stories about their breasts.  It was a healing journey for everyone involved.   Without exposing their identity, this allowed these women to express themselves in the photoshoot and write their own stories.  This helped change how they felt about their breasts and go from Vulnerability to Empowerment!  

•    These stories and images will be one of my main pieces in my exhibition which the opening night is on the 15th November 2019 and runs until 29th November 2019.

•    Full documentation available for viewing on request. No part of this document may be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner © Gayle Clearwater 2019. Exposing the truth through my exhibition and positive media reporting © Gayle Clearwater 2019.