May 13, 2014 As part of the Abbott Government’s 2014 Budget, it is announced that from January 2015 Newstart recipients under 30 will be forced off the unemployment benefit for six months at a time. This six months on, six months off, policy will continue indefinitely until Newstart recipients gets a job. [Policy is still subject to the passage of legislation] May 13, 2014 As part of the The Abbott Government’s 2014 Budget it is announced that starting in July 2015 Work for dole will be greatly expanded. Newstart recipients under the age of 30 will be required to do 25 hours of unpaid labour a week for six months of the year. Those between 30 and 49 will do 15 hours of Work for the Dole. Those unemployed people between the ages of 50 and 60 will be required to do 15 hours a week of an “approved activity”. May 13, 2014 As part of the The Abbott Government’s 2014 Budget it is announced that from September 2014, Unemployed people who experience a serious failure for refusing or not starting work, or a second or subsequent serious failure for persistent non-compliance, will no longer be able to request a waiver due to hardship or by starting a Compliance Activity. They will be required to serve the 8 week penalty period May 13, 2014 As part of the Budget, it was announced that the eligibility threshold for Newstart and Youth Allowance will be frozen for three years. This means that eligibility thresholds will not keep pace with the rising costs of living. May 13, 2014 As part of the Budget, the eligibility age for Newstart will rise from 22 to 25 years [Policy is still subject to the passage of legislation] June 12, 2014 Government announces that Newstart Recipients will be required to apply for 40 jobs a month, double the previous number. [Note: Government has since backed down] July 1, 2014 Government announces that prospective employers can report people not attending job interviews to Centrelink , resulting in hundreds of thousands of people having their welfare payments suspended. September 2, 2014 Government announces that after the next election, the bi-yearly Income Support Payments will be abolished. This will apply to people on the following payments: ABSTUDY Living Allowance Austudy Farm Household Allowance Newstart Allowance Parenting Payment Sickness Allowance Special Benefit Youth Allowance September 15, 2014 Government looks to give Job Service Providers (JSP) the power to directly suspend the welfare payments of its unemployed clients. Previously this was the responsibility of Centrelink and its staff, who as public servants were subject to a number of government regulations that ensured welfare recipients the right of appeal. [This policy is still subject to the passage of legislation] December 7, 2014 The Coalition government announces that Newstart recipients living in particular rural areas will be required to work for the dole 25 hours a week for 12 months of the year, double the normal rate. This change will effect around 30,000 people. January 1, 2015 Newstart recipients who miss an appointment with an employer will have their payments cut until they attend another one. Under the previous system, Newstart recipients only had to agree to attend a new appointment. It was also announced that penalties will significant increase after July 2015, as Newstart payments will no longer be back-dated for the period of non-compliance. February 4, 2015 The Australian Unemployment Union is launching Branches in both Melbourne and Sydney. The next Branch meeting in Melbourne will be: When: 13th February, 3pm Where: Trades Hall All are welcome! The Australian Unemployment Union are still scheduling a meeting for Sydney, but the working date is Saturday the 21st of February. If you are interested in attending these Branch meetings, or would like to work toward starting your own branch in your local area, contact the AUU at contact@unemploymentunion.com.au for further details. January 20, 2016 21 January 2016 By Daniel, AUWU member. Today was our second day on work for the dole. The first day was hot: 32 degrees, no biggie. Today, it was 34.9 degrees at 11.30, currently writing this at 2.20 pm it is 39 degrees. Yesterday we all discussed what action would take place once the temperature hit a certain point. Our supervisors said that if the temperature reached 35 degrees we would be sent home due to the nature of the work (gardening and setting up for the next 24 weeks for a few other activities). That point came today. The supervisors called the Work For the Dole manager at the Job Network. I heard bits of the phone call and afterwards the Work for the Dole Coordinator (the boss of all the supervisors) told me that we were staying. The Work for the Dole manager at the Job Network said she wanted an email before the start of the day, advising her of the chance of weather reaching this point so she could clear it and notify us all. So we broke for lunch. Returned to the site an hour later. It was really hot. No one was working. We found some shade and bunkered down. A man February 1, 2016 Today, the Coalition Government will be asking the Senate to support the most devastating attack waged against the unemployed since World War II. In an open letter written to all members of the Senate, the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is demanding this cruel and punitive Bill be voted down. Dear Senator, The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union would like you to take a moment to consider the dangers of voting for the Coalitions proposed Bill, entitled Social Security Legislation Amendment (Further Strengthening Job Seeker Compliance) Bill 2015. It is the least you can do. As you know, this Bill proposes to give the employment services industry unprecedented and sweeping new powers to financially penalise unemployed Australians. We would like to point out in the strongest possible terms that giving the dangerously under-regulated employment services industry more powers to financially penalise unemployed workers will lead to untold suffering of some of Australia’s most vulnerable citizens. If you agree to pass this bill, the privately run employment services industry will for the first time be able to fine unemployed Australians 10% of their Newstart entitlement (increasing by 10% each day until they ‘reengage’) if they Fail to sign a job plan within 48 August 22, 2016 OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER OPEN LETTER TO LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION September 6, 2016 September 6, 2016 asd September 7, 2016 October 16, 2016 Last August the AUWU submitted its response to the Department of Employment’s consultation paper relating to the Employability Skills Training phase of the Prepare Trail Hire (PaTH) program. In the AUWU’s submission – available here – it outlined many different issues which presented risks to unemployed workers. Some of these concerns included: The PaTH program’s lack of safety procedures No compensation for extensive travel costs related in attending PaTH program Unemployed workers being unfairly forced to attend when ineligible due to perverse financial incentives offered to training providers and job agencies Training will humiliate and undermine confidence of unemployed participants Lack of protection against Job agencies and training providers rorting the system No procedures to prevent low level quality training On October 13, the Department of Employment responded to the submissions. In its response, the Department of Employment failed to address one of the points the AUWU raised in its submission. Instead the Department emphasised the importance of the ‘flexibility’ of the training offered (which was one of the concerns raised b the AUWU), and raised the amount of money payable to training providers for delivering the training (ignoring the AUWU’s concerns about the possibility of rorting). From the Department’s submission, it is clear that the PaTH program is not concerned with the November 27, 2016 Today the AUWU has released its National Advocacy Hotline Report 2015/2016! Click here to download. December 6, 2016 Unemployed Workers Rights Booklet November Edition Fully updated and now including a new section on unemployed workers rights at Disability Employment Services. To download and view the guide, please click here. Please send any questions, comments and suggestions to advocacy@unemployedworkersunion.com National Advocacy Hotline If the unemployed workers guide does not address your question or concerns, please call us on (03) 8394 5266 Hours of operation: 10am-2pm, Monday-Friday. Answering machine messages will be responded to within 10 business days. Alternatively, you can email us for advise at advocacy@unemployedworkersunion.com The hotline is maintained by a volunteer group of AUWU members. October 30, 2020 To say 2020 year has been a difficult year is an understatement. It is a testament to the tireless work of our volunteers that we have come out of 2020 a stronger and more resilient union. To ensure the AUWU hits the ground running in 2021, we invite eligible members to attend the AUWU Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 12 December. At the AGM a new Executive Committee of Management will be elected and AGM reports received and considered. In accordance with the AUWU constitution, only active members who do not work full-time will be eligible to vote or nominate for Executive positions at the AGM. Please see the AGM information below for more details. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the AGM will be held remotely. The details of the AGM are as follows ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING When: 2pm, Saturday 12 December 2020 Where: Online only event (invitations will be sent out to eligible voting members and nominees). Information about nominees and AGM reports will be posted online before the AGM and will be available for all AUWU members. Results of the AGM will be announced after the event. Please note, only eligible voting members can attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting. ANNUAL GENERAL 2014 Budget: Newstart Attacked
2014 Budget: Work for the Dole expansion
2014 Budget: Increased Newstart Penalties
Budget 2014: Newstart Eligibilty Threshold Frozen
Budget 2014: Under 25s forced off Newstart
Increased Job Search Requirements
Harsher Newstart Requirements
Abolishment of Income Support Payment
Privitising Centrelink Functions
Increased Rural Work For the Dole
Harsher Newstart Penalties
Melbourne and Sydney Branch Meetings
WORK FOR THE DOLE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY WIN
OPEN LETTER TO THE SENATE: VOTE DOWN ATTACKS AGAINST THE UNEMPLOYED
Open Letter to Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition
Joint Press Release: Poor Being Criminalised By Social Security System
adgadsg
Joint Statement of Concern
PaTH Program is a Pro-Business Stitch Up
New Edition of Unemployed Workers Rights Guide Now Available Online!
Notice of Annual General Meeting
The government’s all stick and no carrot approach will force a generation into poverty and crime and
leave a far worse scenario for the next government than the situation that this government has wasted
time bitching about
https://www.facebook.com/brendan.loizou/posts/10205613575249502
if the best form of welfare is a good job, provide that good job, get off your arse kick down doors and make the good jobs available to the unemployed, the unemployed are not here to be kept unemployed as some sort of prtverse amusement for uncaring ,I don’t care Australians.
these measures are clearly worse than any one imagined in that trained Qualified and skilled People will be force to be like unskilled people
a complete joke, where government and society;s people show absolutely no respect to other Australians
Time for every voter to seriously consider voting for anyone but the current Liberal , National and Labor Parties. I wonder if any University has done a study into the impact of 457 Visas on jobs for Australian citizens. My intuition tells me that there is a correlation between the upwardly rising unemployment statistics and the big increase in use of 457 Visas (imported cheap labor). Could also be part of the reason why many new degree qualified Australian nurses cannot get jobs!
Iif you went into linkedin and typed a position description. Particularly in construction say engineer whatever. Youll will find thousands of 457 people under these engineering roles in australia. The way it works is the guys in the head offices will identify a job position. They then want he cheapest guy. They then usually look to the UK or where the wages are very low. They then phone the estimator say howy gong, hes a picture of bondi. tell y what, your on 23k pounds in London. il give you 50k Australian. The Londoner wil get wet over the pics and think hes o a deal. The company wil then make up shit and go though 47 process,. They land in yd and get a shock at the living costs but its too late they have mobilised. They then say ok I stuffed it il either do a yr or two and go, or il d whatever to get residency and then go. Either way the entire work pool is distrubted and displaced and you get staccato employment amongst aussies. It then gets worse cause the foreigners then need more foreigners to protect themselves against incompetency si t worsens the unemployement.
can everyone please commence writing letters to the ministers for employment to respond to this question.
the taxpayer has now funded 100’s millions maybe a billion in running this work for the dole scheme. jsa hosts etc staff offices aust wide.
Is the number of unemployed and hence the dole cost to the taxpayer reducing per month or not? also what is the ratio of the cost of dole expenditure versus cost of running the scheme per month. If the dole expenditures is not reducing and unemployment reducing then the taxpayer is wearing the monthly cost of running scheme for no return. A complete waste of huge money.
Can the govt start providing these figures and must be independently verified, to demonstate if 100 millions is not being wasted.
can the govt please demonstrate how they will achieve value fo money from this scheme?
and this needs to be reported monthly. I guess it will shown to be billions cheaper to just pay people the dole without the wftd scheme.
its not rocket science. But I guess for politicians that were failed law graduate, and only last 3 yrs in the private sector not mentioning any names, and then sucked off the taxpayer in a govt job all their life maybe it is difficul.
2016 after an early election (before the May budget is released) Abbott will abolish the dole and unions, to bring in his $2.00 an hour workforce
after some preliminary observations of this wfd scheme. This scam at a first glance seems to be operating like this. I invite everybody to add to this so Australians can commence to build a picture of what is really happening. As I said this is just a fist glimpse so please add here as speculation needs to be confirmed by many sources. This proposal can also be disputed if you think.
1. Unemployed person is sent to jsa to sign job plan and undertake wftd.
2. The contract between unemployed person is with the jsa. The jsa receives money from the govt for placing the person into wftd ativities.
3. The goal of the jsa is to fill their quotas and kpi’s by placing the job seeker straight into work for the dole activities.
4. To fulfil this objective, they want your signature on the job plan immediately.
5. To do this they limit all discssions to between 5 and 7 minutes tops.
6. If anyone unemployed asks about alternatives, new initiatives safety etc etc they will say sorry need to see next person, don’t worry your safety will be taken care by host, generic garbage illegal responses, hurry up and sign or you loose payment.
7. If a jobseeker is seen to be difficult to put an immediate signature they bully and coerce by the threat of terminating payments.
8. This then works 90% of the time because the jobseeker is scared and needs the next pay.
9. THe genius is in employing the young previously umemployed people as consultants, to o the dirty work at a cheap rate, and also guilt free as they are not aware of the breached to human rights and safety laws that they are making.
10. The owners of these wftd jsa orgainsations are creaming 100’s millions for this scam. at taxpayer expense.
11. This has been demonstrated as anybody who actuallr proposals real alternatives for job seekers with real skils and real jobs on offer are immediately show down cause they are ot part of the money chain
so that’s it folks, that’s the way I see it. feel free to add or argue. I think its disgusting. as above someone needs t tell the people of Australia how much has been spent on allhese thousands of newly fiited out offices and humn resources to administer all this wastage.
Please distribute the draft procedure to other umemployed people fo review and comment
Gee Wiz the government are going to poor money into the ice epidemic, gosh gee wiz is that because they are missing out on profits because I doubt they really care about the people who are affected by ice, Poor the money into creating jobs and people will not have to turn to finding drugs to dull their miserable life is going nowhere, tomorrow I might be homeless. trapped in a bottomless pit of shit. Maybe the whole of Australia can work for the department of departments of departments of change departments name.I know maybe we can all get a job in unemployment services, oh hang on then there would be no more unemployment, what about we all work in call centers, oh buggar they have brought in half of India to do that. Ive got it, we all go overseas then come back with 457 visas. It just goes on and on and now attacking the aged is on the agender. Are we all so stupid to not see that the government likes to accuse unemployed as being dole bludgers rather to admit that the countries productivity has gone down the gurglar.Sell Australia to the Chinese maybe the government can get a kick in the arse from the communists.
Tony Abbott is the person who thought of the idea of creating the work for the dole scheme.J ohn Howard is the person responsible for implementing the scheme.
Claudia is spot on.
The issues we have with drugs, alcohol, anti social behavior and crime all stem from lack of job security and self identity. People who are gainfully employed develop a strong sense of confidence and belonging that yields a sense of satisfaction in their lives. Those without work, especially through no fault of their own (as illustrated on this websites stats on jobs available vs job seeker numbers) feel undervalued and turn to those substances to escape that gloomy reality. Crime follows on from that to fund the substance abuse or simply from the lack of care and regard for others for the short term amusement they get thereof.
Successive Governments selling our assets to foreign interests for scoring short term political goals (“budget surplus”) compounds the problem, as such previously government owned and operated businesses were a viable option for apprenticeships are practically unavailable today. Those shunning blue collar work are not getting out unscathed either, as a flood of University graduates lowers the value of degrees (supply and demand, look it up for those contemplating university study) to the point it is virtually a grade/year 13+ of schooling. Worse still when your the employer hiring such wet by the ears and having to nurse them into productive employees with on the job experience (again bad for the rest of us, as that extra effort in training skilled staff takes away time and resources that could have expanded the business and saw a need to hire more staff)