WO1 Kerry and wife Dr Kay Danes call for change in ADF workers rights

A SENIOR Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldier has launched a petition the Federal Government can’t ignore, calling for changes to Australian Defence Force personnel workers rights.

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A SENIOR Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldier has launched a petition the Federal Government can’t ignore, calling for changes to Australian Defence Force personnel workers rights.

The petition, which has been filed with the Parliament of Australia has called for reforms to the Redress of Grievance and Defence Inquiry processes.

Retired Warrant Officer Class One Kerry Danes and his wife Dr Kay Danes, who holds a Law and Justice doctorate lodged the petition following said the action was “urgent” and needed because ADF personnel are defined as servants to the crown and do not hold the same workers rights as employees of all other sectors.

Retired Warrant Officer Class One Kerry Danes and his wife Dr Kay Danes file Parliamentary Peition calling for reforms to ADF policy. Picture: SUPPLIED.

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Mrs Danes said there needed to be corrective action policy put in place to ensure procedural fairness.

“There might be a grievance in the workplace so you got to your chain of command but the problem is the straight away you become the problem,

“The military likes to have everything neat in the box and ordered so if you get service personnel coming forward it goes against their model of falling in line.

“They don’t sit down and do genuine mediation to resolve the issue, they go straight into an adversarial approach that then turns your grievance around and puts you as the bad person.”

Mrs Danes said it was critical the petition was made official to ensure it doesn’t get lost among the ever growing list of veterans issues not being addressed.

“If you want to be heard then you have to engage the government,” she said.

“It will also get recorded in Hansard which is not the case for something like a Change.org which in fact carries very little weight.”

For more information, visit www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN2256

Originally published as WO1 Kerry and wife Dr Kay Danes call for change in ADF workers rights