Aspies For Freedom

Workplace bullying leads to death
AAP February 8, 2010, 10:39 am

   Four workmates of a young waitress who killed herself by jumping off a building have been convicted and fined a total of $335,000 over relentless bullying before her death.

Brodie Rae Constance Panlock, 19, was subjected to the humiliating bullying by workmates at Cafe Vamp in Hawthorn, in Melbourne's east, before she threw herself from a multi-storey car park in September 2006.

Former workmates Nicholas Smallwood, 26, now of Queensland, Rhys MacAlpine, 28, of Kooyong, and Gabriel Toomey, 23, of Melbourne, all pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of persons.

The cafe's owner Marc Luis Da Cruz and his one-man company MAP Foundation pleaded guilty to two charges, including failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.

All four men were convicted on the charges, with magistrate Peter Lauritsen on Monday describing their actions as "the most serious case of bullying" and saying he would have doubled the penalties if they had not pleaded guilty to the charges.

Smallwood was fined $45,000, MacAlpine was fined $30,000 and Toomey $10,000.

Da Cruz, 43, was fined a total of $30,000 while MAP Foundation was fined a total of $220,000.

During earlier hearings, tearful family and friends of Ms Panlock heard distressing details in court of her ordeal at Cafe Vamp, where she worked between June 2005 and September 2006.

Ms Panlock's distressed mother Rae had to leave court several times as Mr Lauritsen delivered his findings.

Prosecutor Gary Livermore told a pre-sentence hearing on Friday that witnesses had seen Smallwood and MacAlpine pour fish oil into Ms Panlock's kitbag and then pour it over her hair and clothes, reducing her to tears.

He said they had also engaged in indirect bullying, such as calling her fat and ugly, spitting on her, gossiping, exclusion and failing to intervene when she was being bullied.

He said Da Cruz was aware of the bullying and on occasions told them to "take it out the back".

Mr Lauritsen was told that Ms Panlock had tried to commit suicide in May 2006 by ingesting rat poison with beer after being rejected by Smallwood, with whom she'd had an intimate relationship.

Mr Livermore said that after that incident Smallwood put rat poison in her bag, and MacAlpine urged her to take it, while her tormenters had taunted her about her attempted suicide.

The three men no longer work at the cafe.

Smallwood was on Monday morning told he had lost his job in Queensland.

A significant jail term would have been more appropriate. Since bullying is a significant problem to us a message needs to be sent out it is entirely unacceptable. this sentence was little more than a slap on the wrist.

The fines were probably more than twice what these people's yearly income.  I don't know however how many court ordered fines are actually paid.  

Worse has happened to me at workplaces.  But I never did suicide.  Better if people don't date coworkers.  

Maybe every workplace should have any bullying and discrimination training.

Sorry I meant every workplace should have anti-bullying and anti-discrimination training.

I did read the parents of the girl are pushing for criminal sentences to be imposed for severe bullying. There is no such thing at the moment.

NT's blame us for having no empathy. (I think we have a very high level of empathy, just don't show it). I suspect these criminals had little empathy to the person concerned and just melted in with the rest regardless of the consequences to the individual so they wouldn't be excluded.

I would think that a lot of American men would accuse these males (not men) of being homosexuals because they bullied the only woman who worked there.

Someone put chemicals in my food and water bottle at work and no one did anything about it.  No one who knew even told me.   Even when this person blew white powder in my face and told me that it was Anthrax, the supervisor did nothing.  

I think they should have been charged and fired when they poured fish oil over her.  A man put rat poison in her bag, someone should have called police about that.  

Anything like that happens to people who are reading this.  Keep records with dates, what happened, who was there etc.  Put complaint into supervisor in writing about incidences.  You can also phone some government inspectors who are authorities about work safety.  People can go to prison for knowingly endangering others at work.

Maybe not - food workers get paid better here than in the US. It's too late also as the poor girl is now gone. Money won't bring her back to her family. These guys should certainly have got the sack because they showed they were unfit to work as part of a team.

One wonders how they were brought up to think it was okay to treat a girl with such disrespect. No doubt there was a ringleader (probably the guy who'd been going out with her for a while). Yes, it might be bad to have workplace relationships but I'm sure the young lady never thought it would break up.

The boss bears a large amount of the responsibility for not reprimanding these guys when first told about their bullying and then not dismissing them if they continued their bad behaviour. Sadly, this case is not an isolated instance, although most others I have heard of haven't gone as far as suicide. The bullying has still wrecked lives and I don't think it is taken seriously enough.

If I was a HR manager I would put this in the company code of conduct this verbatim

"If you deliberately engage in behavior which is contrary to the welfare of workers or the company such as 1.) Malicious behavior 2.) Morally, racially, ethnically and social questionable behavior 3.) Behavior which violates the health and safety of employees and so forth you will be henceforth terminated and will not receive the latest round of compensation. You will also be ineligible for benefits and severance".

This may not happen as much, if people stop using the pet name bullying, and calling this what it is.

Psychological abuse.

A fairly major political row is brewing in the UK over the bullying tactics of our prime minister, Gordon Brown.

          Link to BBC website

He's such a hugely unpopular prime minister, I feel this will be the nail in his coffin.  With the general election only weeks away, whether he wins with any kind of workable majority (highly unlikely) or loses, he won't be trusted in any kind of office again.  His bullying, which has been hinted at in the past, will go on to haunt him.

Bullying disables people.

Bullying puts people on disability pension.

And---

It kills.

And that in turn has landed the chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline in hot water - it's supposed to be confidential, dontcha know!!
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What I dont understand is why these guys weren't penalised from the beginning. These guys have proven unstable, furthermore they are crminals who equally mudered this woman. They should have a serious jail sentence.

By doing these awful deeds, they have caused her murder. Equal to actually killing her.

Her life was worth far more than those piddly fines.