Tweet
$30,000 FIGHT FOR $1.20 JAILED MAN TAKES RACE CLAIM TO VCAT
By Fiona Hudson And Liam Houlihan
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)
May 4, 2008 Sunday
A MAN jailed for kidnapping a single mother and setting her on fire
triggered a $30,000 tribunal hearing during the week -- effectively
to argue about $1.20 in lost pay.
Loddon prison inmate Hasan Huseyin Alipek sought the VCAT hearing
over claims he was denied a jail factory leading hand job because of
his poor English skills.
Serial litigant Alipek said the alleged discrimination had financially
disadvantaged him and made him wonder if there was something wrong
with him.
He asked tribunal deputy president Cate McKenzie during the three-day
hearing to reduce his prison sentence as compensation.
A prison guard told the tribunal she had not even considered Alipek for
the job and his language skills had nothing to do with the decision.
The job was given to a prisoner who had been longer at the factory
than Alipek, the guard said.
The tribunal also heard Alipek assaulted another inmate soon after
missing out on the job and would have been ineligible for promotion.
Alipek effectively missed out on, at most, one day's pay at the higher
rate awarded to leading hands -- a gap of about $1.20.
Costs associated with the hearing are estimated to have topped $30,000,
including an interpreter at $20 an hour and a video link from prison
at $89 an hour.
Alipek, representing himself, used his time on the video link to make
a series of wild claims against prison bosses.
He claimed guards tried to feed him pork -- which as a Muslim he could
not eat -- and an officer had given an inmate a knife to stab him.
In a separate action this year Alipek, a political refugee from Turkey,
said his court interpreters were biased because they were Armenian.
Mother-of-three Hulya Cavus suffered burns to 40 per cent of her body
when Alipek doused her with petrol and set her on fire in October 2002.
He was sentenced to 14 years' jail and is not due for release before
2013.
Deputy president McKenzie reserved her judgment.
By Fiona Hudson And Liam Houlihan
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)
May 4, 2008 Sunday
A MAN jailed for kidnapping a single mother and setting her on fire
triggered a $30,000 tribunal hearing during the week -- effectively
to argue about $1.20 in lost pay.
Loddon prison inmate Hasan Huseyin Alipek sought the VCAT hearing
over claims he was denied a jail factory leading hand job because of
his poor English skills.
Serial litigant Alipek said the alleged discrimination had financially
disadvantaged him and made him wonder if there was something wrong
with him.
He asked tribunal deputy president Cate McKenzie during the three-day
hearing to reduce his prison sentence as compensation.
A prison guard told the tribunal she had not even considered Alipek for
the job and his language skills had nothing to do with the decision.
The job was given to a prisoner who had been longer at the factory
than Alipek, the guard said.
The tribunal also heard Alipek assaulted another inmate soon after
missing out on the job and would have been ineligible for promotion.
Alipek effectively missed out on, at most, one day's pay at the higher
rate awarded to leading hands -- a gap of about $1.20.
Costs associated with the hearing are estimated to have topped $30,000,
including an interpreter at $20 an hour and a video link from prison
at $89 an hour.
Alipek, representing himself, used his time on the video link to make
a series of wild claims against prison bosses.
He claimed guards tried to feed him pork -- which as a Muslim he could
not eat -- and an officer had given an inmate a knife to stab him.
In a separate action this year Alipek, a political refugee from Turkey,
said his court interpreters were biased because they were Armenian.
Mother-of-three Hulya Cavus suffered burns to 40 per cent of her body
when Alipek doused her with petrol and set her on fire in October 2002.
He was sentenced to 14 years' jail and is not due for release before
2013.
Deputy president McKenzie reserved her judgment.