In the realm of apprenticeships, the promise of hands-on experience can sometimes come with a hefty price tag of mistreatment.

For one young mechanic, the journey through a dysfunctional dealership sparked a bold response that would ultimately put the entire establishment’s unsafe practices in the spotlight.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

My worst job ever

When I was fresh out of high school, my sister’s boyfriend offered me a job as a mechanic at a local dealership.

The job was an apprenticeship and was at one of the worst dealerships I’ve ever had the displeasure of working at.

He didn’t exactly have the best experience there.

I could tell you dozens of stories about being an apprentice that would discourage anyone from taking up the position.

However, I feel like my experience can be summed up in 3 examples of mistreatment.

His safety was routinely jeopardized.

A 4th year apprentice was taking a gearbox out of a small car (probably weighs like 30 KG 60 lbs) he told me to “catch” the gearbox as it came out of the car while he undid the last bolt.

I told him I wasn’t comfortably catching a falling heavy sharp unpredictable mass and he told me he would get me sacked if I didn’t do what I was told.

A fool could have seen it coming. The gearbox fell, I was unable to “catch” it, and and the casing broke on the ground as it landed.

If you can believe it, the apprentice was the one to be punished for this.

The foreman came by and blamed me for the incident. My wages were docked to pay for the gearbox housing.

The apprentice’s abuse was often for the entertainment of his colleagues.

I was later humiliated by another apprentice who filmed the event on his camera phone and showed the rest of the workshop me failing to catch the falling mass of metal.

In another incident, I was asked to retrieve 2 tyres from the cage (a literal lockable chicken wire cage about 10 square meters large and 4 meters high that was assembled out the back of the workshop to house our tyres) to fit to a vehicle.

To collect the tyres I needed to climb a ladder to get them from a top rack.

Then comes one of the most upsetting examples of mistreatment.

As I was up there, I heard the gate close and lock and one of the mechanics had locked me in the cage as part of a hazing ritual.

It was about 35 degrees (100 F) that day and I was locked in there for 2 hours.

To add insult to injury…

Whenever a mechanic came past and saw that I was in the cage they would take a nearby fire hose and try to hose me down in there.

By the time I got out of the cage, I had such bad sunburn I couldn’t come in to work the next day because I was still vomiting from the heatstroke.

Once again, the apprentice was punished for the cruelty of others.

My boss did not approve the time off and I was given leave without pay.

For the final story, there was an incident where we recovered a bumper (fender?) from a 4wd after we attached a bull bar in its place.

We used to save these bumpers in case we ever dinted one so we had spares essentially.

They were forced to endure another task that would put their safety at risk.

I was asked to place a bumper on 2 hooks and then climb a ladder to the top of the workshop and hang the bumper on the rafters at the top of the workshop for storage.

I don’t know if you have ever tried to climb a ladder with no hands and holding a large somewhat heavy and awkward load that can under no circumstances get scratched or dented, but I assure you – its difficult.

The inevitable then happened.

As I was climbing the ladder, it started slipping on the greasy workshop floor and eventually collapsed under me causing me to fall ~ 4 meters 15 feet dropping the bumper, injuring my hand and resulting in me once again being humiliated by a mechanic who was filming the ordeal.

I was told that it was my fault that I fell off the ladder because I “wasn’t doing it right” and the unsafe work practice was not updated.

They didn’t care to help protect the safety of the apprentice whatsoever.

(I should note I had asked another apprentice to hold the bottom of the ladder and they had neglected to do so.)

Suffice to say, I was sick of how this company operated so I spent the next 2 weeks taking photos of unsafe work practices.

They were finally ready to start exposing the messed up practices.

I took photos of lots of things including:

• People using a grinder with no guards, no goggles, no gloves
• People smoking next to open fuel sources,
• An apprentice locked in a grease pit (another hazing ritual and yes I opened it after taking the photo)
• 2 apprentices moving a heavy piece of shop machinery into storage by pushing it up a flimsey wooden ramp
• apprentices working at heights without railings
• HAZCHEM materials that were stored… well… anywhere… not locked up

You get the idea.

They escalate the photos, hoping the word will get out.

I sent the photos along with some accounts of my personal experiences and anecdotal evidence of other unsafe practices I had personally experienced to Worksafe: A government body that fines workplaces for unsafe practices and ensures they clean their act up.

Luckily, it did, and the company finally receives some overdue punishment.

The company I worked for received over $100K in fines and had to spend probably another $25K in repairs to bring their workshop up to spec.

The local mechanics union became involved too and caused problems around the treatment of apprentices and safe work practices in general.

The place is still the largest employer of apprentices in the area I grew up in but I hear they treat people a lot better now.

That was a harrowing experience to say the least.

Redditors weigh in with their thoughts.

The apprentice not only helped themselves, but also every other apprentice that would follow in their footsteps.

This concerned commenter encourages the apprentice get a good lawyer involved.

It’s not just “hazing”; It’s abuse.

As far as unsafe workplaces go, this story takes the cake.

The dealership learned the hard way that ignoring safety and abusing their apprentices was a recipe for disaster.

This courageous apprentice brought this dealership bumper-to-bumper with justice.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.