For context, my previous post can be found here.
Forgive me if this ends up a little long-winded. I'm going to try to give as full a picture as I can but I apologise in advance if it gets a little rambly. TL;DR at the end.
So it turns out I was right with the title of my last post. I began work, formally, as a minimum-wage apprentice with the employer in question nearly 5 weeks ago (April 5). Prior to landing this position, I had been on a carer's pension with the government for a couple of years as the carer for my housemate. This was a secure – albeit financially tight – source of income for as long as the two of us lived together and I didn't regularly spend more than 20-something hours away from her in any given week. I had already been looking for jobs but was essentially given a deadline to find one when she made the decision to move across the country to live with her new partners. Nothing wrong with this.
As you might imagine, I was relieved and honestly quite excited to be committing to this new job. I would be undertaking an apprenticeship in avionics, which is awesome because I've always been very interested in electrical work and being able to work on planes and helicopters made it so much more appealing. When I received the call requesting that I come in for an interview with the owner (I'll call him Dick, for Richard), I readily agreed and even drove a 7-hour round trip just to attend. During this interview, we had a long conversation where he stressed this would be a long-term commitment and he was looking for someone who was in it for the long haul; who could be trained up over the 4-year course and then be stationed at their rural location.
So, after a couple of unpaid trial days (yeah, I know), I began in earnest and honestly felt like I was picking it up pretty quick. I even spent my second paid week working out of town, which implied to me that I was already trusted to be reasonably competent, or at least sensible enough to justify sending me 4 hours north and providing accommodation. I'd like to note that this trip oh so inconveniently coincided with my housemate being away for the first time in years and so I had to front over $1000 for last-minute animal boarding for my two dogs and her two cats (I agreed to this since her trip had been planned well in advance).
I also made sure to cancel my pension at this stage to avoid the government coming after me. Anyone else from Australia who has ever dealt with Centrelink will know how difficult they make it to get money from them and how doggedly they'll pursue someone to claim money back. I was all in at this point – my housemate and I would be moving away from each other permanently soon so I wouldn't be able to resume my pension. I began making plans to move closer to my new workplace, and even jumped the gun on a fairly new relationship by asking her a little too soon if she would like to move in together at my new location, but this was mostly because I knew it would be very difficult to afford to rent a place on my own when I had two dogs preventing me from going for the cheapest studio apartment I could find.
Cue the weekend that resulted in my last post. Something very sudden happened between my partner and I and we ended up splitting, which absolutely crushed me but also left me wondering how the hell I would find a place I could afford. I had/have no friends or family I can move with, and anyone else would have to be okay with two very energetic pups, plus all the requirements that come along with that (fully fenced backyard, accepted by the landlord, etc.). I was now facing the very real possibility of being homeless in the near future.
All this compounds in a Sunday night of ugly-crying into my housemates arms long after I should have been sleeping. I'm a horrid mess of a person in the mornings at the best of times but despite the fact I was deep in a depressive spiral and only achieved 5 hours of sleep, I still managed to arrive at work only 5 minutes late. Up until this point, I had consistently been 10-15 minutes early each day.
I was greeted that morning with a lecture on punctuality, which pissed me off and further added to everything going on. I wasn't particularly cordial for the rest of the day but I didn't attack anyone or let it detract from my work. The next morning Dick opened with “I'd like to have a chat about your attitude yesterday,” as if I'm a pre-teen incapable of managing his own emotions. I stood up for myself firmly, never once attacking him, yelling, or making any excuses, he ended up backing down and I thought that was the end of it.
A week or so later (May 3) I come in to work and Dick tells me “I have some bad news.” He then says that he/the business don't have the necessary funds to continue to pay me at my rate because unlike most other apprentices I'm over 21 and therefore have a higher minimum wage, so he can't justify keeping me on payroll. I've been let go. I had just spent nearly $800 on tools after he had bugged me persistently to get them because I would soon need them (I checked and I believe it's legal for him to require me to buy the tools because of a part of my employment award that included an allowance for them, but if anyone else from NSW/Australia knows better please let me know).
Whether or not he was telling the truth at this point is irrelevant to me. Either he's a complete reckless moron and went through the whole hiring process (advertising, interviewing, hiring, etc.) without having the money to actually pay me, or he was just finding an excuse to get rid of me after I stood up to him, damaged his ego, and made it clear I wasn't going to be pushed around. But he's now put me in a situation where I have no job, barely any money, and will soon be out of a house as well – oh, yeah, we were also given our 90-day notice to vacate because the landlord probably wants to sell. So much for a long-term commitment.
At this stage I have just a couple weeks to find a job and then a place that I can afford on my own that will actually accept me. If I don't manage this, I'll be homeless with two dogs and it will be because of a hypocritical arsehole making empty promises.
If anyone knows Australian employment law better than I do and has picked up on something in my story that might help me, please let me know. I need all the help I can get right now.
TL;DR my now ex-boss hired me without actually having the funds to pay me long-term, so after making me think I had a secure job ahead of me for at least the next 4 years and letting me commit to spending thousands on making the most of the opportunity, he let me go despite knowing I was facing homelessness even if I had continued to work for him.