Your HACSU workplace delegate: Brahmanand Mandal

Brahmanand Mandal (or BN for short) is a Personal Care Assistant at Calvary Sandhill, an aged care facility in South Launceston. He’s also a passionate HACSU delegate and advocate for aged care workers.

BN has been working in the aged care industry for over five years, and he’s been a HACSU member and delegate for two of them. In his previous role in Nepal he was a District Project Co-Ordinator for water sanitation and hygiene programmes run by the Global Sanitation Fund and the United Nations.

As a HACSU delegate BN says he has learned a lot of useful skills like leadership, team work, understanding health and safety laws, campaigning skills, bargaining skills and member recruitment tools. He hopes that in the future his workplace can ensure that all workers are accorded with dignity, respect and fairness no matter their walk of life. He also wants to help “organise his workplace to be safer and more democratic,” and play a role as a “good team member” with new “ideas, tools, skills and research information” in his workplace.

He says that outside of work he likes to participate in social causes and also enjoys travelling and exploring the state.

BN says that since he did his bachelor’s degree in Medicine and master’s in Public Health back home, he’s been a big believer in the role of education. “I believe education plays very important role in a person’s life and it can change the community for the better too.”

Since he came to Australia, BN says he’s been working almost exclusively in the aged care sector. “I have found so many challenges and opportunities in this sector, which is the reason why I have joined the union and love working as very active delegate. It’s definitely a passion too.”

His favourite song is ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ by Greenday, and his favourite film is ‘Three Idiots’ (2009) which is a Hindi language coming-of-age movie.