Your Right to a Safe Work for the Dole Activity
All Work for the Dole activities have to meet strict safety guidelines.
2.1 Your Right to a Work for the Dole Risk Assessments
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 19
2.1.2 Requirements of a Risk Assessment
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 20
2.1.3 Risk Assessment Checklist (Work for the Dole place)
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 20
2.1.4 Risk Assessment (Job Seeker)
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 21
2.1.5 Your Right to Adequate Supervision
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Work for the Dole Guideline, pp. 12-13
2.1.6 Special Considerations for Vulnerable Unemployed Workers
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Work for the Dole Guideline, pp. 8-9
2.1.7 Insurance at Work for the Dole
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 22
Suitable Work for the Dole Organistaions/Activities
By law each Work for the Dole Host Organisation must fulfil an number of legal requirements to qualify as a ‘suitable’ work for the dole place. If your Work for the Dole host organisation does not meet any of these requirements, call the department of employment immediately on 1800 805 260 (free call from landlines)
2.2 Suitable Work for the Dole Host Organisations
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 7
2.2.1 Must Not Displace Paid Workers
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Work for the Dole Guideline, pp. 10-11
2.2.2 Banned Work for the Dole Activities
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Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 10
2.2.3 Your Right to Learn Suitable Skills at Work for the Dole
Work for the Dole Places must provide job seekers with the opportunity to gain skills, experience and confidence to move from welfare to work while at the same time making a positive contribution to their local community
Work for the Dole Guideline, p. 2
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Employment Service Provider Requirements
As the primary point of contact for unemployed workers, Employment Service Providers have important responsibilities to ensure unemployed workers are placed in suitable and safe work for the dole places. Additionally, providers have a responsibly to ensure unemployed workers’ personal circumstances and health enable them to safely work for the dole.
2.3.1 Your Right to a Work Capacity Assessment
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Job Plan Guideline, p. 4
2.3.1 Your Right to a Partial Capacity to Work Consideration
The definition of Partial Capacity to work is follows:
A person with a physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment has a partial capacity to work if the impairment prevents them from working at least 30 hours per week at the relevant minimum wage or above, independently of a programme of support, within the next 2 years. In determining whether a person has a partial capacity to work, all impairments that impact on a person’s capacity to work within the next 2 years will be taken into account, regardless of whether the condition/s giving rise to the impairment/s are fully treated and stabilised and the Secretary must be satisfied that no training activity is likely, because of the impairment, to enable the person to work at least 30 hours per week at the relevant minimum wage or above, independently of a programme of support, within the next 2 years.
Guide to Social Security Law, 1.1.p.56
If you think you fit into this definition inform your Employment Service Provider and call Centrelink to request your assessment.
Please note that in the time you are waiting to be assessed, you cannot be compelled to Work for the Dole or do any other activity.
Furthermore, if you are considered to have a Partial Work Capacity, here is some more useful information:
People assessed as having a partial capacity to work who are not able to participate because their carer is temporarily or permanently unable to care for them due to unforeseen circumstances may be granted a temporary exemption from mutual obligation requirements under the major personal crisis exemption (3.2.11.40).
To qualify for the exemption, the carer must be a commercial carer or a relative or friend receiving CA or providing a level of care which would qualify them for CA.
The exemption is normally limited to the time required for alternative care arrangements to be put in place or until their carer recovers from their temporary incapacity. However, it the carer has not recovered from their temporary incapacity or the job seeker has not been able to find alternative care arrangements within the exemption period then, this period may be extended.
The maximum exemption period at any one time is 13 weeks.
Guide to Social Security Law, 3.2.11.80
2.3.2 Your Right to a Temporary Reduced Work Capacity Consideration
A job seeker may have a temporary medical condition and have a temporary reduced work capacity (TRWC), which is identified through an Employment Services Assessment [Request one from Centrelink if necessary]. Job seekers will have reduced requirements for the period of their TRWC. When setting appropriate activities, the delegate must ensure that activities and the level of participation take into account the job seeker’s TRWC.
When circumstances arise that impede a job seeker’s ability to meet their usual mutual obligation requirements they can be adjusted to reflect those circumstances. Mutual obligation requirements are flexible and it is preferable and generally possible to reduce a person’s requirements, rather than exempt the person from requirements. However, there are circumstances, specified in the legislation, under which a full exemption from requirements is appropriate (3.2.11).
Guide to Social Security Law, 3.2.9.10
2.3.3 General Legal Requirements
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Employment Service Providers also have to abide by
Providers must conduct a risk assessment for each job seeker placed into a Work for the Dole Place
Providers must actively manage and ensure job seeker attendance in Work for the Dole Places, and
Where a natural disaster has occurred, Work for the Dole activities should (and must if directed by the Department) assist with the recovery as part of a Community Action Group Activity (CAG) or a Project of National Significance (PoNS).
2.3.4 Your Right to a Principal Carer Parent Consideration
Being considered a Principal Carer will reduce your Work for the Dole requirements
A person is a principal carer of a child if:
- the child is a dependent child (1.1.D.70) of the person, AND
- the child has not turned 16.Note: only one person at a time can be the principal carer of a particular child. In all shared care situations, it is necessary to determine which of the carers is the principal carer.If both shared care parents are receiving NSA, depending on their level of care, both may receive the NSA (with child) rate. However, only one parent could be determined to be the principal carer of a particular child.
Grandparents, Step-Parents, Temporary Guardians can also be considered as Principal Carer Parents. Please click on the reference link for more information.
Guide to Social Security Law, 1.1.P412
2.3.5 Your Right to be Exempt from Work for the Dole
In a Job Plan, Providers must not include participation in Work for the Dole (or other approved programs of work) as a compulsory item:
• for job seekers receiving less than the full rate of Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance (other) or Parenting Payment Single, where the rate is reduced due to the income test (Note: A reduced rate can result from the job seeker’s own income and / or their partner’s income.)
• for Special Benefit—Nominated Visa Holders if the person or the person’s partner has income
• where the Activity is more than 50 hours per fortnight
• where the job seeker is aged under 18 or is 60 and over.
2.3.6 Your Rights Regarding Unforeseen Breaks in Activities
There is no need to adjust a job seeker’s requirements if they have a break of less than or equal to 4 weeks that is outside their control. If the break is greater than 4 weeks then the job seeker is required to undertake other suitable activities such as job search, for the period of the break. The Job Plan should be revised to include the adjusted requirements.
Exception: Separate rules apply to principal carer parents and job seekers assessed with a partial capacity to work when the activity is casual part-time paid employment. Breaks or holidays in casual part-time work beyond the control of the parent or job seeker of any duration can result in the principal carer parent or job seeker assessed as having a partial capacity to work being required to undertake other suitable activities (job search, in particular) for any fortnight in which the 30 hour per fortnight part-time work requirement is not met. Breaks or holidays in permanent part-time work will not result in job seekers assessed as having a partial capacity to work having to undertake other activities as long as their basic rate of income support does not increase during the holiday (i.e. they receive the same level of employment income during the break).
If a person needs to take a break from an activity due to personal circumstances, then they must immediately notify DHS or their employment services provider, who will then either revise or develop a new Job Plan taking into account the job seeker’s changed circumstances.
Example: A job seeker may have a reduced capacity due to a recurrent medical condition or unexpected child care responsibilities and is unable to make suitable alternative arrangements.
Break for principal carers – Christmas & New Year period
A principal carer is not required to meet any requirements during the fortnight that the Christmas Day public holiday falls. However, they are still required to lodge their statement (1.1.S.350) to DHS for this period in order to report any earnings and stimulate their payment.
Break for principal carers – employer initiated shut down period over the long school holiday break
When a principal carer is meeting their mutual obligation requirements by working (including instances when working is one of a combination of activities) and the person’s employer initiates a shutdown period over the long school holiday Christmas break, the principal carer is considered to be meeting their requirements as long as they reasonably expect to resume their employment when their employer resumes in the New Year. The employer initiated shut down period break can only be taken while the place of employment has shut down, up to a maximum of 8 weeks. After 8 weeks the principal carer will be required to participate in additional activities to meet mutual obligation requirements.
Guide to Social Security Law, 3.2.9.10
2.3.7 Your Right to Choose your Own Approved Activity
Work for the Dole is not the only approved activity unemployed workers can choose from.
For job seekers aged 18 to 49 years with full-time Mutual Obligation Requirements, Work for the Dole is the principal Activity to meet their Annual Activity Requirement unless they have:
• arranged to meet their Annual Activity Requirement through another approved Activity that will start at the time they become subject to the Annual Activity Requirement, or
• already undertaking other approved Activities at the time they enter the Work for the Dole Phase.
Job seekers aged 50 to 59 with full-time Mutual Obligation Requirements may choose to undertake Work for the Dole or other approved Activities to meet their Annual Activity Requirement.
PCPs and PCWs of any age may choose to undertake Work for the Dole or other approved Activities to meet their Annual Activity Requirement.
In addition to Work for the Dole, the other approved Activities that will enable a job seeker to meet their Annual Activity Requirement are:
• Part-Time Employment
• Unpaid Work Experience Placements
• Voluntary Work
• part-time study/training (in a Certificate III or higher)
• accredited language, literacy and numeracy courses, which can include
o Skills for Education and Employment
o Adult Migrant English Programme
• Defence Force Reserves
• Other government programmes, including state government programmes and the Green Army Programme.
Job seekers may also undertake a combination of the Activities listed above where it is deemed suitable or necessary by the Provider. For Stream C job seekers, participation for the relevant number of hours in non-vocational assistance and interventions will meet their Annual Activity Requirement.
PLEASE NOTE, there are certain Activities that will not count towards meeting a job seeker’s Annual Activity Requirement. These include:
• non-accredited education and training
• Certificate I or II courses
• non-vocational assistance and Interventions (except for Stream C job seekers). For example, careers counselling, personal development courses and addictions interventions.
Mutual Obligations Guideline, p. 12
2.3.8 Your Right to be Exempt from Your Mutual Obligation Requirements
There are some circumstances where a job seeker may be temporarily unable to meet their Mutual Obligation Requirements. DHS may grant the job seeker an Exemption from their requirements for a specified period. This recognises the different family and personal situations that job seekers face and that may prevent them from participating in Job Search, paid work, Work for the Dole, vocational training or other activities. In the first instance, DHS will usually look to reduce a job seeker’s Mutual Obligation Requirements, rather than exempting them completely.
If a Provider believes that the job seeker should be exempt from Mutual Obligation Requirements, the job seeker should be advised to contact DHS to test their eligibility for an Exemption. Job seekers would need to take any evidence to DHS to support their claim. For example, a medical certificate from their doctor, if they are applying for a medical Exemption.
When a job seeker is granted an Exemption, they will be Suspended from a Provider’s caseload for the duration of the Exemption (some job seekers with longer-term Exemptions may be Exited from a Provider’s caseload). However, job seekers may voluntarily choose to continue with Employment Provider Services for the period of their Exemption.
Domestic violence
Exemptions may be granted where a job seeker is subject to domestic violence (including family violence). If the job seeker is a PCP and subject to domestic violence, an Exemption must be granted by DHS.
In situations where there is any suspicion of domestic violence, Providers must refer the job seeker to a DHS social worker. Providers should also refer a job seeker to the range of national and state-based organisations that offer advice and information concerning domestic violence.
Pregnant job seekers
During the early months of pregnancy, a pregnant job seeker’s Mutual Obligation Requirements will not change. Generally, the job seeker will still be required to look for work; however, the Provider must take into account the job seeker’s personal circumstances when setting activities in their Job Plan.
Pregnant job seekers who are three months from their expected due date must not be required to look for work. During this time, Providers cannot compel these job seekers to accept job offers or referrals to job interviews, but the job seekers will be required to continue in some activities subject to their capacity. Once the pregnant job seeker is six weeks from their expected due date, DHS will grant the job seeker an Exemption from their Mutual Obligation Requirements.
Mutual Obligations Guideline, p. 20
What are my right for rest and lunch breaks. I do up to 8hr a day, 3 days a week for Work for the dole.
That’s what I would like to know too, I have been told by my Job Active provider that lunch breaks are not included in my 15hrs per fortnight, therefore I have to start half an hour earlier to make up for it? I am nearly finished my phase, but I would like to know for future reference.
Sorry correction – 30hrs per fortnight.
You’re entitled to lunch break 30 and tea break 20
30 minutes lunch break and if entitled 10 minutes tea break
2 15 mins and a half hour
Why isn’t certificate 2 a valid work for dole activity ? How sill I’m studying but because it’s not a cert 3 course I have to do full work for dole hours as well!!??
I was sexually harassed in my work for the dole. How do I get help with this? Who are my options? My job provider didn’t do anything after 1 month of telling them and then when I escalated it to the department of employment the manager rang me to try justify why and then asked me to drop the case.
It is a criminal offence and must be reported to safe work. It is an obligation you have to yourself and others to report the incident. Please do, the workplace is not a place for this behaviour, legislation is in place to prevent it occurring. Don not let it happen.
don’t work there. Just go there and do nothing. Be VERY VERY slow. At any opportunity you get, do sabotage. Make it as hard as possible for the slave drivers.
hahaha what a legend
Ahahaha hell yeah. Fuck em
tell the police. NOT the job provider. They are a greedy. selfish corporation. They don’t care.
My work for the dole coordinator today also accidently touched a fellow workers boobs on numerous occasions today and made a joke about it every time . Also bags out lesbians and Indians on a daily basis !
he probably flies a LGBT flag at home, like many aussies. yknow the Gay Mardi Gras is the biggest festival in Australia !! enough said
I am a principal carer doing 8 hours work for the dole. I can manage this as my children are at school. However, the school holidays are coming up and I have no relatives or friends who can look after my children. I cannot afford childcare, even if it’s subsidised, and the only available child care is very awkward to get to, as I don’t have a car. Can I get a temporary exemption for work for the dole during school holidays?
As you are a primary carer (solo parent) you are entitled to all school holidays at home to care for your children.
I am in the same position. I said to my job provider. i am the primary carer and will need to stay at home with my children and will see you after the school holidays. It is accepted
I am a lawyer with three qualifications who has been told to cut lawns or build canoes for 50 hours per fortnight. I have not been given any other options.
I am required to undertake menial tasks that will never benefit me in any way or lead to career progression. After raising serious concerns that the menial tasks will not benefit me in any way whatsoever, I am told by my provider “you better keep quiet or you will lose your payment”. This is despite my education, experience and skills, which they refuse to consider in assessing my needs or participation requirements.
It’s not that I don’t want to work, it is that I am devoting 25 hours per week to menial tasks for a mere $250~ per week. I am being paid less than the base wage which is supposed to be, in my view, protection from slavery. I am being slaved not because I cannot get a job but rather the fact universities are churning out graduates and the governnent cannot create enough jobs, subject to the state of the economy.
Notwithstanding the above, liability/compensation is capped differently for WFD participants as opposed to people with actual jobs! It is far lower because we are viewed as less value.
Meanwhile, for people with jobs, they are being paid at higher rates for not dissimilar work than a WFD participant.
Am I an Australian citizen or a dog that needs to be put in line with contradictory policies and legislation?
I am not your slave Australia and nor is any other party who is required to undertake the absolutely pathetic menial tasks you believe will help us gain employment. It will not. It is allowing potential employers to hire a slave rather than an employee.
In actuality, I cannot comprehend why a class action is not brought against the government for breach of human rights. Should a firm be willing to being such an action, I am sure millions of people would sign up!!
I also believe your present employment may hamper your search for future employment in a Law Firm, for example would a law firm perhaps be more inclined to hire the Lawyer from another firm or the cleaner whom is a Lawyer out of work. They don’t seem to care some of them love making us feel inferior and threaten if you don’t do as they say your benefit will be cancelled, at least that’s my experience with my job provider Veranda from Global Skills Liverpool Office. And YES I hope I just turned the tables and shamed her. How does it feel?????
I actually work a job, at least ten hours a fortnight but am required to work fifteen hours a week. I was told when I’d done ten hours one week at an actual job that when I took one of the days off the following week to save on petrol (and still would have done a total of fifteen hours that week), I should have done both days regardless of working at an ACTUAL paid employment situation and that it was almost meaningless because I should have attended my WFD worksite because I would learn things that would lead to employment.
Because I can completely see that scrubbing a toilet or shower-block or doing shoddy painting would really be desirable for a potential employer.
And I took that day off because if I HAD done that extra day, my total fuel bill for that fortnight would have been $60+ where they’re only giving me a $20 allowance for fuel or travel expenses. I can’t take public transportation from my area because 1) the public transport in my area is close enough to non-existent and 2) if I took it, it would take me at least one and a half hours to get to my WFD placement.
And this isn’t the worst time. The last time I was doing a WFD placement it was at least a four hour round trip. Forty minutes by bus to the city, fifty minutes by train to the outskirts of the suburb it’s located in, and then a four kilometer walk there. And then a repeat of that for a return trip. When I complained, I was told to just accept it or not do it and lose my payments. ‘Tough s**t’ was the basic message. So each of my days ended up being thirteen hours.
I’m not a lawyer (and I didn’t finish my degree) but I feel the same pain as you.
I am being sent to a local food bank where I will learn nothing! Rather than allow me to stay home and complete unaccredited courses that are relevant to my new business, and that I will pay for myself, I am forced to waste two days a week in a sort of supermarket . I will basically be revisiting my teenager years when I had a part time job at Coles.
I will not benefit from this program in any way.
A class action makes plenty of sense, it is common knowledge that the job centres have been corrupt and fraudulent in the past yet no charges were ever laid (watch four corners).
They are paid a fairly large sum of money to place job each seeker into WFTD activities and that’s their sole motivation. They don’t bother about whether the activity is going to be relevant or beneficial to the participant.
The agency I go to know I am in the process of starting a business, they have seen my resume and know of my skills and abilities, they are aware of my plans yet they are putting me into a food bank. I will be ‘working’ with people who legitimately can not find employment for various reasons. People who may never be fortunate enough to find suitable work. Yes this placement is useful to them, the will gain new skills and perhaps increase their confidence.
But what skills could I possibly learn there? Sorting the rotten bananas from the over ripe ones, writing numbers on items in permanent marker, placing milk in fridges, wiping down surfaces?
Good god, I do this stuff at home, I do not need further training.
And yes you can call me a dole bludger or a whinger if you will, but the job agency staff are beneath even us dole bludgers. They are corrupt, greedy and in my experience not particularly good at their jobs. What makes them better than us unemployed folks? It is simply the fact they they are employed, never mind that they are working for corporations that are ripping off the government (and the charities that host the WFTD participants).
The agency I go to even has a full time psychologist on their staff, what do you think she earns and how much psychology do you think she actually does for her money? What a waste of government money.
The whole scheme is laughable. And we think America is in strife having to choose between Clinton and Trump.
The answer to this for all of us is very simple. It sounds a little crazy at first, but it will work. Vote for the Communist party in the next Federal election. They won’t get in but they will get Labour in, and get seats themselves, pushing the labour half of the capitlist duopoly to the left and getting the unions back into play. It’s not like it will ruin the country. It will just stop fat rat conservatives and their religiofascist buddies from abusing and slaving everyone that is not in their church/lodge/fraternity/golf club.
Get a government that is so left wing that work for the dole will be considered the bad conservative fake-moral slave driver joke that it is.
Also, it’s obvious that many people who are well qualified to contribute to society in other ways such as government work, law, education, and other well trained professionals are being bastardised by greedy small minded middle man for-profit job providers, whose employees’ best skill is tall poppy syndrome, and best character trait is bitterness and making themselves feel better by taking others down a notch.
If you want to get these conservative fake-moral jokers out of the way of your betterment and upward mobility (educating yourself for better careers and contributing more to society and yourself) then vote for the Communist Party and get a left wing union friendly labour.
It will work.
I will take your suggestion and run with it! I’m so over what we are required to do for a piddly 300 pw. I’m over 50 but my ep has said I have to do 25 how for it rather than the 15 the fact sheet says.
I used to vote liberal, but no more. I’ve voted for the wrong minor parties in the past and kicked myself for it coz their votes went to liberal grrr. Besides, Australia has been a communist country for years anyway. Why not officially vote for them!? Its about time we got a party in who’ll help the working class rather than wiping their Gucci shoes all over us
There is a middle ground between Capitalism and Communism, it’s called Socialism and is protective of worker’s rights without discouraging initiative and wealth accumulation. The Scandinavian countries have been living with the security of Socialism for decades. The Greens follow this model.
Fuck off pinko, I’d rather die than live under communist scum, you think that’d make it better? Read a book tou idiot.
Trying to blackmail you , how funny
There is nothing positive about your position or the position many of us face with ‘work for the dole’, take comfort in the fact your not alone by a long shot. I have just found this site and posted my own situation where I live remotely in the country {55 yrs old with many chronic health issues) and now forced to live and sleep in my car during the week. The reason being I am 150 km from town where I am made go work and the travelling costs each day in petrol are $30 per day, a cost I just simply can not afford and so my situation is that I am at the mercy of the job providers and if the make me work on a Monday and then a Friday then I will have to live in my car in town all week. Regardless I simply can’t even afford to travel in one day a week never mind several or more. What do you do? You get treated like a dog, I have worked my whole life and paid tax’s and this is how people like myself get dealt with. If there is any class actions being taken, please let me know so that I can join.
Me too!
You should be able to ask job provider each time you attend for fuel voucher phone credit and the required clothing to do work for dole. Make sure you ask everytime you go to work for dole it’s not a one off thing it’s everytime you go your untitled to fuel voucher phone credits or bus train for opal fares or taxi passes
The program “work for the dole” is like severe pycological -emotional punishment for most specially someone with tertiary education, skills and talent at mature age. I am a talented fashion designer. Single mum. Due to stress and severe depression , i found myself under this wheel.
They sent me to work in a salvos restaurant, frying meat to homeless people. As a vegan person , i found that raw and cooked meat disgusting. I vomit few times a day into the toilet bowl.
I lost 4kg in a week. I hated myself. I hated entire world. I had to continue for my baby’s well-being. I cry everyday. How dare they push people to work in a job they have no any interest or willing or happiness to do it ? Absolute slavery !!
Luckly i found a away to rescue myself, now working as freelance artist from my home studio. But i feel sorry for the others whose must command their freaking orders. Sad.
The answer to this for all of us is very simple. It sounds a little crazy at first, but it will work. Vote for the Communist party in the next Federal election. They won’t get in but they will get Labour in, and get seats themselves, pushing the labour half of the big corporate fascist duopoly (which serves only the Gina’s of the country and their paid political bum boys) to the left and getting the unions back into play. It’s not like it will ruin the country. It will just stop fat rat conservatives and their religiofascist buddies from abusing and slaving everyone that is not in their church/lodge/fraternity/golf/chambers/society club.
Get a government that is so left wing that work for the dole will be considered the bad conservative fake-moral slave driver joke that it is.
Also, it’s obvious that many people who are well qualified to contribute to society in other ways such as government work, law, education, and other well trained professionals are being bastardised by greedy small minded middle man for-profit job providers, whose employees’ best skill is tall poppy syndrome, and best character trait is bitterness and making themselves feel better by taking others down a notch.
If you want to get these conservative fake-moral jokers out of the way of your betterment and upward mobility (educating yourself for better careers and contributing more to society and yourself) then vote for the Communist Party and get a left wing union friendly labour.
It will work.
You have the right to organise your own WFTD placement. I am also a professional. I am a qualified secondary teacher and currently teaching migrants English 3 days a week for my $250. By the way, I’ve just discovered that we are meant to receive a $20 per week payment to help cover the expenses of work such as transport.
If I was you I would organise a placement at a Legal Aid center.
How do I organise my own placement? I’ve been looking for information and I can’t find it. I was already volunteering at a community radio station, doing admin work, and was making contacts with people who at the very least would be excellent referees, and who could actually help me find work. Instead my job provider has me doing 25 hours a week with the RSPCA sorting donations (I’ve just found out that as I’m over 30, I only need to do 15) which is actively inhibiting my ability to look for work. When I asked my handler initially if I could use my volunteer work at the radio station, she hand-waved it away, and told me my options were to do work at either the Salvos or the RSPCA. Nothing else was offered, it was presented as “your choice is to pick one”. A friend told me last night that I should have been able to organise my own placement, but I’m struggling to find the relevant Govt. docs to prove it, as I know the lazy cow will just hand-wave me away again if I don’t go in with evidence.
Being a qualified lawyer, and affected personally why dont you start a class action? Should be easier for you than most others. Go to good old slater and gordon and should be able to kick it off for free if it has merit. I will join once started as im sure will many others who have been “underpaid” compared to legal minimum wage and denied other working rights.
To follow up my last comment, I volunteer many hours with a legal community organisation. As the type of work I do allows me to volunteer from home or attend court I am told that only hours attending an office count. Unfortunately most of the hours I put in cannot be considered as meeting the requirements.
Instead of volunteering with an organisation that can help build on my skills, I am asked to engage in the most unsuited and menial WFD activities which prevent me from volunteering.
God forbid what will happen when I attend an upconing pro bono domestic violenece matter instead of the WFD activity. I will not have met my requirements as its not in an office.
What a joke. This is a really big **** you to poor Australian citizens needing a little bit of supoort while they look for real work.
There is definitely a clear solution for the problem at hand which in my sight is only going to grow bigger. I believe opportunities such as these are excellent for people to meet and discuss most probable solutions. I live in Salisbury, Adelaide and unemployed professionally since tow and a half years. Would like to explore options to meet with like minded people to figure out solutions for this mean problem.
After graduating with a university degree, i was unemployed for more than 6 months and was forced to do the work for the dole program. Not many WFD providers were available near my area so they sent me to a catholic op shop in a far away suburb. I had to change two trams and travel 40 minutes to go there. It was a boring and miserable environment and the thought that I had to work there for 25 hrs per week for an extra $20, caused me anxiety. Because of many delays caused by the paperwork (such as the police check etc) and by pure luck, the job provider screened me for a role at a new fast food restaurant and I was finally offered a job. After many delays, I work for this restaurant. This job is also depressing, like a galley slave. Many unpaid and underpaid hours, a very stressful job environment, rude supervisors, shitty hours. I guess I don’t have much of a choice until i find a proper job in my field of study
You have a choice. The answer to this for all of us is very simple. It sounds a little crazy at first, but it will work. Vote for the Communist party in the next Federal election. They won’t get in but they will get Labour in, and get seats themselves, pushing the labour half of the big corporate fascist duopoly (which serves only the Gina’s of the country and their paid political bum boys) to the left and getting the unions back into play. It’s not like it will ruin the country. It will just stop fat rat conservatives and their religiofascist buddies from abusing and slaving everyone that is not in their church/lodge/fraternity/golf/chambers/society club.
Get a government that is so left wing that work for the dole will be considered the bad conservative fake-moral slave driver joke that it is.
Also, it’s obvious that many people who are well qualified to contribute to society in other ways such as government work, law, education, and other well trained professionals are being bastardised by greedy small minded middle man for-profit job providers, whose employees’ best skill is tall poppy syndrome, and best character trait is bitterness and making themselves feel better by taking others down a notch.
If you want to get these conservative fake-moral jokers out of the way of your betterment and upward mobility (educating yourself for better careers and contributing more to society and yourself) then vote for the Communist Party and get a left wing union friendly labour.
It will work.
Hey Bruce not everyones a pinko piece of shit like you.
Yeah, because communist/hard-line socialist governments NEVER engage in forced/underpaid labour or violate their citizens’ human dignity. (/sarcasm).
I have a long laundry list of gripes against the Coalition and most of those gripes would be 10 times worse under a Communist system.
As for “but their votes will go to Labour”, the ALP had six years to fix or axe WFD but didn’t. Base payments increased to make up for Howard’s negligence, but that’s it. The $20.80 payment hasn’t increased a single cent since the introduction of WFD, despite an increase in participation requirements, a continual decrease in the quality, quantity and availability of projects and two decades of inflation. Labour won’t fix or axe WFD because governments have been using WFD to fudge the unemployment figures (the ABS considers you employed if you are engaged in 1hr+ of volunteer work).
I am confused about the activity Ive been placed in. Its a private entity and the role I am performing seems to be quite a specialised role. I feel I am working in ehat should be a fully paid professional job. How do I go about investigating whether the activity complies with the law? Who would I report them to? My job network are certainly not helpful in this regard. Thank you
I am on the verge of turning 55 years old with numerous chronic health issues and live remotely in the country in my own home. I have been told I have to work for the dole several days a week in the nearest town which is approx. 150 km round trip, each trip costs in petrol around $30 (travelling over 2 separate ranges). I have no option and being forced to sleep in my car for the nights I am made work for the dole in town as I can not afford the petrol and even going in once per week is strain on my budget that I can not afford. Can anyone tell me what the laws are and what my rights are in regards to this as currently told I am now to be penalized for not working for the Dole (was told only this week that I was to start this week) and given 2 weeks to get organized to start and today got a phone call from job providers telling me that I am now being penalized financially (even though a few days ago they said I have another 2 weeks to see doctors etc.). I already suffer from depression and anxiety and now being forced to sleep in my car is effecting my health, making things much worse.
It does not say that once I have finish my work for the dole phrase I can cut down on my volunteer hours. I added more hours when stated WFD phrase so I wouldnt have to go some where else to do work for the dole. I need to know because I want to cut 2 days a week after the 6 months. I ve been their for a long time and no longer can work with one of the voluteers because they seem to think it is ok to make appointments on that day and think it ok by me but if I do the same thing they dont like it and can not wait until I can do it.
Start filming these corrupt touchy feely creeps and let’s start posting and shaming them. I’m about to start WFD and sarina russo are so keen to push this rather than any meaningful employment. They are being paid as a job search provider but don’t bother getting anyone jobs as there is more money in keeping us on the books. WFD is slave labour and certainly below any wage paying job. Time to start a class action against all those involved. So sick of being a second class citizen while the likes of refugees come here and are given accommodation and employment.
I started work for the dole after i finished my uni degre and was unable to get work in my state. Sadly because i live far out, I had to take 2 trains and 2 buses to get to an op shop which was the only thing my provided had. I’m 25 and I’m not allowed to answer phones or use the cash register as aparently “I must do training mods” before they can let me do anything here. Basically there are 6 of us in this situation. All we can do is walk around the shop adjusting the hangers. We are literally going to this place to be baby sat.
I do 3 all day shifts then i have to come in for 1hour on a forth day to “make up my hours” so i have to travel nearly 4 hours to stand around an opshop doing nothing for 1hour. This is fking insane. I told my provider and asked if i could do an extra 9 hours in a week and that would be like me doing 9 of the 1 hour days, so 9 weeks. They said that it is not allowed and i need to learn what it’s like working a job XD who the hell hires someone for a 1 hour shift!? And I was working 28hours a week when i was at uni!!!!
I wanted to get the “training” mods done so that i could be useful and actually do something, so i walked up to the lady runnng the opshop and as i asked her “when can i learn” she agressively cut me off, yelled at me “Don”t you dare let me see you standing around like that or you’l lose your payments in a heartbeat!” I was just standing to ask her a question.
The shit i went through, no training, not being allowed to do anything at allproves to me that this whole WFTD is clearly a way to create a slave workforce. They aren’t training us!!!! This is a way they can legally make us work for slave wages, i was getting a little over $400 a fortnight for 50hours work which is ILLEGAL. They can treat us like dirt, dock our pay if we get sick or if we fight back or ask questions.
For those of you saying “just get a job” if i could get a job don’t you fking think i’d want to get paid for my work!!!! I WANT A JOB. I’m basically working a job where i barely get paid!!! We’re basically slaves getting less than half the pay you would working for maccas!!!! WAKE UP! This is not helping anyone.
I left centrelink and work for the dole. I moved into my partners mothers house which she is renovating. I’m a live in housemaid just to have a roof over my head and i do weeding and drop of flyers to pay my bills. I can’t even afford money for medications anymore. I need to do 1more year at uni to be a qualified teacher but i sold my car, almost all my posesions just to get by because centrelink is not there to help. If i could just get a parttime job, I’d be able to buy the things i need to finish my degree. Perhaps there will be more work in teaching and I will never have to deal with centrelink again. Fingers crossed I find work, anywork.
But even so, i have seen how horrible WFTD is and i can see it will only cause more problems in the future, it will remove more paying jobs from Australian families and there will be more of these “slave labour” training programs, which will only trap people in a circle of poverty, never paying them a real wage and never training them for work.
We need to make more jobs!!!!
WOW some of these comments are really pathetic. You do not get paid an hourly rate to undertake a WFD activity so how can the $400+ pay be illegal? One of you might be a lawyer, another cleaner, that does not mean the lawyer is “special” & WFD is not suitable for you!
WFD changed in October 2016, where job seekers will need to job search for the first 12 months before they are referred into a WFD activity if they are still unemployed. This is because after 12 months you will need some skills and new referees on your resume. There are far more people that benefit from this than a few whinging people that say “don’t
work there. Just go there and do nothing. Be VERY VERY slow. At any opportunity you get, do sabotage. Make it as hard as possible for the slave drivers”. How idiotic must you be to make it harder on a supervisor that is simply trying to do his/her job and they aren’t the ones that created WFD? It’s like blaming the Police because our justice system suck and lets out criminals that re-offend.
You people have no idea how many people milk the system. How many work cash in hand or simply can’t be stuffed every working. I worked in the job network system and I can tell you that out of 100+ caseload I would be lucky to have 5-6 that would be genuinely looking for paid work, others stories and excuses just didn’t add up. Job networks are not stupid, they have seen it all. They do not “cut your payment” they report your non compliance with Centrelink, CL follow their guidelines and if that means loss of payments, that person has to do their job and cut your payments. No one doing the right thing gets their payments cut off.
Do you people really think job networks get paid more for having you unemployed??? WOW some people are really stupid! They actually get $67 to register you and look after you for 6 months, that includes referring you to jobs, courses, job clubs etc. Do you guys know how many job networks have gone bust because they don’t actually get paid enough to cover wages of stuff that get abused everyday by people like you? These consultants are humans, have families, get stalked, threaten and abused just for doing their JOBS! My friend had to move her kids from school and change her surname no thanks to a job seeker that didn’t want to work and made life hell for her.
There are much more benefits to people out there from undertaking WFD. A lot of job seekers have gained employment from the Not for Profit organisation or from recommendations. They are potential employers, they are your referees to paid employment. You are burning your chances with you poor attitudes. A lot of people have had a change in moods, attitude, self esteem since doing something for 2-3 days instead of being depressed and unemployed at home. If they government is paying you $$ they expect you to put back into the community, it’s simply and in return it should give you some experience and change your poor shitty attitudes. If for whatever reason you have a silly consultant, ask to change consultants or providers. If there is something wrong with your WFD activity notify your provider, they are not there with you all the time to see what is happening. Some Host can also be not honest/nice like some job seekers. Not every job seeker is lazy, not every host is honest. Try and see the good to our society and economy with this.
Good luck to you all and hope you find suitable, enjoyable jobs soon.
Found the bubbled, job “advisor” shill.
Cut out the fucking middleman I say, these providers do fuck all except keep themselves in a job.
If you are being forced to work for the dole, then this is invaluable information:
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/CleanedUOSSSimpleSabotage_sm.pdf
> Forget to provide paper in toilets; put tightly rolled paper, hair, and other obstructions In the W. C. Saturate a sponge with a thick starch or sugar solution. Squeeze it tightly into a ball, wrap it with string, and dry. Remove the string when fully dried. The sponge will be in the form of a tight hard ball. Flush down a W. C. or otherwise introduce into a sewer line.
> The sponge will gradually expand to its normal size and plug the sewage system.
Make sure it is more expensive to have keep forced slave than to have no one at all.
Hello paid for-profit job provider bullshitter shill. I hope you lose your job next week and have to join the rest of us. That will be hilarious. Or does your uncle from Church own the job provider?
Hold up, the assumption you base your point on is extremely prejudice towards job seekers being generally unproductive, depressed and aimlessly home- which is wildly inaccurate. If anyone on newstart is living in such a way, well they aren’t ‘job seeking’ at all and as such would be free and obligated to undertake wfd, yes of course. How ridiculous that you have based your view of a job seekers on the qualities of bludgers, when the two sections of society are mutually exclusive! A person actively seeking paid work is the definitive opposite of alazy/inert/bludgers.
That being said, bludger are an issue i agree- however they’re an entirely separate issue to Job Seekers being forced to
a)work for such unlawfully low hourly pay
b)work in an unsuitable position/industry to both their job seeking goal and past experience
c)BE FORCED TO SURRENDER UP TO 30 HOURS A WEEK OF PRECIOUS JOB SEARCHING ACTIVITIES they are currently occupied with which is entirely counterproductive to securing work and moving off the govt payments. Making them ‘labour in temporary, low skilled work’ to ‘earn’ their newstart in place of ‘actually working to secure employment’ obviously hinders their ability to obtain the very goal they are receiving govt payments for!!!
d)adding this stress to an unemployed person who wants and needs work, is placing even more emotional strain on already vulnerable people. Job loss is professionally known to be one of the top 5 reasons for severe depression (is on par with death of a loved one and divorce). This (resulting depression) seriously reduces a persons ability to find and secure paid employment also. Another counterproductive result. See how they are racking up and how the harm is not balanced with the help of the scheme?
Your whole viewpoint relies on job seekers being not seekers of jobs but in fact, lazy bludgers with shitty attitudes. Your heavy bias may not even be something you are aware of, but it is something struggling job seekers are sadly VERY aware of and they are knocked EVEN LOWER by the constant barrage of such unjust and inaccurate rhetoric.
If your points were stated in a discussion about the minority of lazy bludging bastards with no intention of ever working- and not job seekers forced into this govt scheme, id be on board with you completely. The demographic we are talking about doesn’t deserve your shit and your apparent unawareness of your illogical reasoning process due to preset bias is frustrating to me (you have the absolute right to frustrate/offend me of course. As i do to respond). Your intelligence however is also apparent and i hope you apply it to looking at this issue from a different viewpoint and challenge your prejudices.
Thank you for posting what its like from the other side. If i may enquire.. i wish to audit the books.. can you help? So the network agency gets $67 per person on their book..okay… How much do the staff get paid? How much do they get when they put one into employment? What bonus would that consultant get? Is the job network agency a goverment tendered business? I think they are..so how long is their goverment contract and how much is the tender paying the funder of the network agency? Previously I have been put through a special job traing / motivation work shop at my network agent..it was compulsory i attend.. it cost $3000 per head and their was 10 of us.. went for 3 days and was funded by the network agent…Can you please shed some light onto this and where the money comes from? I also understad that when im allocated to work for the doll. the host can claim money from the network provider.. they can legally claim the cost incurred through my participation.. just how much is the Salvation army store claiming as cost expense after me? Would you also happen to know if the Salvation army store claiming any other wage subsidys or funds on my behalf that i dont know off?
Your comment reeks of the ignorance, low IQ, stupidity, and bullying nature of very close to 100% of “job consultants”. As if “job consultant” is a role that requires any education or skills, other than being able to use Google and being naturally bossy. Keep talking up modern-day slavery Kim, it’s good for a laugh
Kim your are a nasty know it all person do you work for theses company are you even unemployed or just so sad in your pathetic life? How’s wfd giving back to the community ? Gives these so called providers to shove unwanted people that they can’t be bothered helping into theses slave labour roles , poor attuides no help tons of certs on paper = no jobs no help hmm wonder why people have poor attuides easy to judge when your a know it all , could go on all day but your not worth anymore time since, one thing you should change your attuide before you write your judgemental statements
Excuse me Shannon!!! The only bloody rude person I can see here is YOU. What the heck do you know about WfD besides complaining??? If you put as much energy into training, looking for employment and interviews you might have a better understanding of the benefits of WfD. Of course I have been unemployed, I was semi paralyzed, out of work for 8 long years and forced to see a consultant in DES (disability employment services) which didn’t understand me at all. I was labelled as lazy and making excuses to work when I was actually working full time when I had a car accident with a truck and ended up in hospital undertaking rehab. I lost my job because of something out of my control, I was under medication, my finances collapsed and I had to go bankrupt, SO DON’T YOU BLOODY DARE JUDGE ME YOU COWARD. You are pathetic and it’s just “poor me”, get off your high horse and go do something because judging me. All because I see the benefits in WfD… boohoo someone has a different option lets attack them hey? How is it not putting back into the community if you are helping for example a seniors club do lunches for the members??? The participants learn how to cook, serve, clean, take orders… everything you need in hospitality, which many people don’t have hands on experience in or how to use a coffee machine. Who is the bloody fool doing the judging here????? Go away I don’t want to hear your crap!
Ohh! you really are losing this one aren’t you Kim. I have four bulging discs and 2 broken bones in my back. I am 59 yo and has taken me 10 years just to start feeling normal. I have paid taxes for 40 years and qualified many times over and experienced. I try not to argue with fools but you will never win an argument with generalisations. Clink has made my recovery harder by stressing me out. I had 0 help 0 assistance all they want is to harass me because I will not be able to do labouring work! and now they want to put me on WFTD- all I know is they want me gone – either way…… I will make a very unproductive slave.
Kim,
If you don’t want to “Hear your crap!” of somebody, why in gods name did you even post your judgement of others here?
Not all Job networks are helpful. i’ve been in job network for a while and all i’ve gotten out of it is a resume re written, and knowing a lot about the consultant.. I know he was married, divorced now. has an adult daughter, he enjoys cooking by experimenting and use to host camp fire dinners where he cooked everything in a barrel. He has used a house cleaner, he has ruined someone’s lawn with weed killer and so much more. How does that help me find a job? Each visit is a rambling conversation of his life, him giving me my job efforts form and new appointment. I need help with a job, not help listening to someone elses life.
Sorry to hear your story Kim, it seems to have left you very bitter and twisted
Kim your an idiot, to even suggest work for the dole is somehow positive and supervisors are good people just doing a job so are ok proves you are a fool. Everyone involved with Work for the (slave labor) is by definition an evil selfish person, punishing the poor and unemployed.
Being paralyzed is no excuse. Didn’t work for 8 years? Lazy bitch, should have to work for the dole.
Care to elaborate on the various benefits and perks that “providers” get for fucking around job seekers? We know they get a $3000 incentive every time they sign someone up for WFD but we’d all be curious as to the various other, usually uncapped incentives you can get.
Don’t speak about something that you clearly have fuck all experience with (recieving disability is not experience). They have to cater to the lowest common denominator, activities are always things like raking pine bark, scrubbing toilets, painting walls etc. Things you can train a monkey to do. The only experience you get is having your mind numbed for 7 hours a day (minus travel) to avoid wanting to eventually kill yourself and/or someone else.
I just had a group meeting today to book me in to WFD – im a licenced K9 security guard that owns my own fully trained german sheperd. . And after years of struggling with only casual work avaliable i got sick of it and enlisted in the defence force in Aug 2016. I was told after my first lot of literacy and numercy testing *(that i passed btw) i had to do a pre enlistment defence force Tafe course as i couldnt produce my year 10 report card. I did have my SACE certs thou but for some screwed up reason year 11 SACE certs are not valid while year 10 certs are-go figure. So i did the 8 week tafe course in 4 weeks- im keen to start asap. I finished my cert in mid dec and am still waiting for my cert in the mail..i have been booked in for the next round of defence force testing on the 1st of feb to make sure i qualify for the high level technical positions im going for but just in case i dont meet the requirements my 3rd choice of job is a basic rifleman. So after my testing no matter what i get i will be eligable to book in for basic army training in NSW and my career ill start…just as soon as i can show then my tafe cert. So id gùess mid to late feb. Start of march at the latest. But thats not good enough for my job netwrk people..today they booking me in to be a gardener at a community center for 2 days a week until i head off for basic training. .. even after i have showed them all the confirmation emails, my letters from my case manager at the defence force, my tafe paper work and my enlistment paperwork from my initial testing results. I have a job lined up-its just a question of what position i will be going into and a matter of time based on when the tafe sends me my cert for the course i did-and payed for out of my own pocket. Even if i wasnt going into the defence force- and was still in the security industry- we work nights-i have been working nights and finishing at anywhere from 3am til 8am and its been hard to get used to waking up before midday. If i was still doing casual security work there is no way i could do a few nights a week finishing at 4am or 5 am and then be expected to do free work starting at 9am a few days a week. After a few weeks id be either useless at my paid job or both and putting myself and others at risk. Ive told them that to in the past and it made no difference. So if you dont fit the mould of the normal 9am-5pm mon to fri worker then the system just wont allow you to do whats right for you. It will just make your life even harder and likely cause you to lose any real paid jobs you have as your performance will suffer badly.
If I get a Medical Certificate for 3 weeks, and it is approved by centerlink, can my provider make me make up that 3 weeks after my 6 months if finished?
Just to follow up here- passed the next round of defence force testing- im now cleared to be interviewed in a few weeks time once i get my damm TAFE cert finally posted out to me. Ive got my suit pressed and ready to go, i got a hair cut and shaved my beard off and unless i swear at the staff interviewing me, i have my pick of at least 3 jobs!! I also did my first WFD day on thursday- what a total joke!! 6 people “working” in a garden area that is a bit smaller then half a soccer pitch. They have 4 garden beds that have been seeded with veggies. SEEDED!! And because they didnt treat the garden bed for weeds before sowing there are LOTS of weeds coming up along with the seeds. Anyone with half a brain and a tiny bit of gardenibg knowledge would have cleared the garden bed of all weeds first,planted the seeds in seed raising trays or pots and while they were growing just weeded the garden beds every few weeks until they stop coming through. Insted i spent the day on my hands a knees pulling out tiny,TINY weeds only a few cms tall with two fingers of my right hand. I literally couldnt do anything else all day. They have turned 1/4 of the yard into a tiny soccer pitch 6 mtrs long and 3 mtrs wide and are moving grass from a grassy area at the other end of the yard to the pitch area. LITERALLY moving grass from an area that is the same size and shape ad the area they are planting BY HAND one clump of cooch grass at a time just for something to do!! Then they are making a put put golf course with 4 holes on the other side with each hole being 1.5 mtrs long, i watched one bloke with a rake spend all day trying to rake this grassy golf course area LEVEL!! HE WAS TRYING TO LEVEL OUT GRASS!! Another guy spent all day making wire cages to put over baby corn that was being eaten by ducks at night. There was only 14 corn plants and each cage took him an hr to make- i could have done ALL the cages in 2 hrs tops myself easy. And it was the supervisor that was making them!! This is a total joke. How is this suppose to help someone like me do anything ?? How does it help any of the others ?? I have worked for a jims mowing type business before and 2 guys would be expected to do ALL the work that needs to be done in this garden in about 3/4 to a full days worth of work. Done and finished with nothing else to do. How is making 6 guys spend 2-4 days a week for MONTHS on end going to help them? Other then teach them how to slack off and look busy doing nothing. Im sorry to anyone that has to put up with this bullshit because they are genuine about not being able to find work or their studys dont qualify them as being busy enough. Oh and the $100 worth of saftey gear including new work boots, saftey glasses and hats,plus they offered me a hi vis shirt and work pants -another $100 worth that i was given and paid for by the tax payer!! Someone needs to get this info out to the media -once people realize they are paying up to $200 for equipment so soneone has everything they need so they can literally sit in the dirt picking out tiny weeds for days on end just to keep em busy, they are going to be pissed off!! And i wont even get a chance to wear in these wrk boots before im off to basic training!! So i left em on site when i left and if they are missing when i go back i will just get another pair, and do the same thing over and over to see how many pairs of $60 wotk boots they will give me.
Not gaining skills not getting paid and no garrantee of paid work after it equals slavery. And too boot the WFtD I’ll be doing is building cause I didnt do that for 3 and a half years getting paid an illegal wage. Which begs the question are me and however else ends up in my group just stealing jobs. To not get paid to do them. Day one I’m asking if anyone has a drivers liscence and if they do we just started a business we’ll take all the clients that WFtD has and charge em 45 an hour. Now this wont happen of course because I’m supposed to be a slave. I mean they can force me to work 35 hours a week but if I choose to steal their client base and start charging their client base as a paid worker well that’d fuck the system now wouldnt it
I’m going into my 2nd work for the dole phase. been unemployed 3 yrs now. im expected at 30 to do 15 hrs a week which im fine with… what im not fine with is the 3 hrs it will take to get to work and back…. this is a leave at 7 30am and get home between 6 30pm and 7pm…. my provider has multi network sites over my city. they also have many work for the dole programs but im told i have to do the one in their area. im only at a site that takes me 6 buses there and back because of the useless of my local site and was refused transfers to toher network companies. also in my 3 yrs of unemployment i have only been offered 1 job which was typing in results for the cenus or voting cant remember and expected to do a ridiculous amount of words per minute which isnt my trade…. i dont see how this system is helping or benefiting me. and all this for a extra 40 a fornight to help with travel eyc and food… try living on your own with a shitty unemployment wage where u eat like a peasant then given only 40 bucks extra to work 30hrs a fortnight, travelling 12hrs a fornight there… half almost my working hrs i will do and expect 40 bucks to cover food for lunch and travel etc. ppl say go get a job but realistically its not that easy anymore and ppl know this but class us as lazy. also my car has broken down to point of scrapping in last 2yrs so that doesnt help with a job where ur provider willingly says to u ypou cant have this job because you have no car… discrimination much??? how am i meant to buy a car??? the cl are pathetic and living off a 100 a fortnight to have bills, a phone for job searching, internet and youre left with nothing. the system sucks and doesnt help at all. the providers get 4k a yr to fund you in coursesm pay for your travelling and also your work gear… yet they only spend 100 on you. make me wear slip on work boots banned in most workplaces due to anckle injuries but wont front the extra for lace ups. btw a family memeber works for tafe another for a training provider and i have also been shown courses in my field of work funded under skills for all that network provider doesnt know is and tells me to get the info… really they sit ina desk take a form with your job searching and once a yr tell you to go be a shit kicker….. they system is fucked and cl handing over all the stuff to the providers is making our unemployment rate worse… tbh ive wanted to neck myself so many times life has gotten that hard because of the system,,,,
about a 3 weeks ago i started work for the doll at Doveton Community Empowerment Agency……run by this absolute fuckwit James chol.
i have had troubles at home and only one with a car atm and have to take my brother to work and dad to appoitments…..people say why dont they get public transport…..my dads 65 and takes 30 tablets a day……
and my brother works 40 mins away….so a bus and then training ride take it about 2 and a half hours away…….
so he sends me home 2 days in a row and get 2 x crosses againts my…telling me he doesnt work for wise (my job agencie) and that he cant do anything or even be understanding and i need to go talk to them :/……fkn idoit makes no
sence…….
then today…..at 11.48 am…….he sent me home……because i was taking a break and playing a game on my phone……we are allowed half an hour break, that everybody else took….
but for some reason im not allowed one ?
plus we are ment to be doing something to better ourselfs……everybody sits on computers playing games and on facebook….or on the phone…..i sit there with headphones in writing up a summaray of a movie hardly making a sound……whilst everyone is yelling and swinging around on chairs….
whilst mr. big James chol leaves us unnatended for hours at a time….making one of us sit at the reception desk doing his job….while he is off talking to his friends….and he can allways find time to talk to who ever stops by……..but we have to sit in a fkn back room bored out of brains looking up government funding for non for profit orginisations and then ment to send it to him…..
WfD is an excellent program, when executed properly. Unfortunately, this depends entirely on which JSP (Job Search Provider) you’ve been allocated to, as well as the caseworker you’re assigned at said JSP. This much variability is dubious, and results in all manner of discrimination, bullying tactics, and so forth (as discussed by those who have commented before me). Until recently, when I relocated a few suburbs over, and therefore assigned to a new JSP, I had no complaints. I was treated well and genuinely enjoyed working with my caseworker.
After discussions with a lovely phone consultant from the Department of Employment, I was informed that my current volunteer work at a non-for-profit organisation (which is approved by Centrelink for WfD) would, in fact, be a suitable activity for my WfD phase. This is hardly surprising, seeing as volunteer work DOES come under the Mutual Obligation Requirements Guidelines. In previous discussions, however, my JSP advised that I could not conduct WfD in any placement beyond that they had secured for me. Adding insult to injury, I was about to begin three weeks of training at my volunteer organisation while the manager took annual leave, to bolster my skillset, and give me an edge against other applicants during recruitment for Casual and Part-Time vacancies in the organisation I was volunteering at.
Despite advising the JSP caseworker that it was imperative that I get –at the very least– these three weeks of training under my belt, as a means to create a viable employment opportunity in the future, I was met with responses nothing short of policy and procedure recitation. I had no choice but to get a second opinion directly, from the Department of Employment, and thereafter inform the JSP caseworker of my rights in light of the situation.
In the end, the case was taken to the head of WfD, who advised that I could conduct my hours at the volunteer organisation of my choosing (which I am working toward gaining employment at); HOWEVER, they would first need to undertake a risk assessment, and file all relevant paperwork, which they “hoped” will be done by the end of the week. It’s important to note this volunteer organisation is the SAME place I conducted WfD in the previous year, and continued to work at of my own volition.
While I am grateful for the efforts of those involved, the end of the week is already one week into the three I should be spending gaining the necessary skills to foster my applicability for paid employment. It would not surprise me in the least if there are numerous, inexplicable delays or efforts on the part of my JSP to ensure this process takes at least three weeks, rendering all my efforts thus far null.
If there are no further developments by the end of the week, I plan to voluntarily cancel my allowance with Centrelink, and thereby any ties to this JSP. Two weeks of training organised of my own volition with a possible job on the horizon sounds infinitely more appealing than being bullied into submission.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. 🙂
When somebody is on a WFTD agreement can the organisation make them work a full day, 5 days a week and only get paid a part time wage? (This has been goi g on for 6 months now) The organisation has said from 7am till lunch your under WFTD and time after lunch is paid at a part time. The duties are the same to other Full time paid employees. I feel as though the organisation which actually hosts the WFTD program are using the individual.
*The part time pay is paid by the organisation.
It should be pointed out, but not mentioned in the site documents, that joining the Army, Navy or Air Force Reserves is not an option for people over the age of 35. They only take in people between the ages of 17 and 35. I am 51. Recently Work for the Dole changed so that people up to the age of 60 now have to do it. I’m with a job provider whose only Work for the Dole they offer is customer service, customer service, and customer service: namely waitressing work. The only exception to that is working for a Chinese community association where you are required to speak Chinese, which I don’t. I have reached a point where at my age, there is very few options that are constructive to getting employment.
Not to mention the fact that forcing the poor and underprivileged into the military to die in wars has been an obscenity perpetrated by the wealthy classes for generations, and we are all too stupid to see through it because we buy into their ‘God, King, and Country’ BULLSHIT. If we start keeping our eyes open for when they’re using their marketing psychologists and socio-cultural engineering propaganda down our necks (almost all of the time – especially in the mass media and the fake democratic duoploy of corporate owned capitalist profit banger parties) to train us to have personal cultures and beliefs that benefit the wealth classes (any human being may behave badly when they’re monied, which is all the more reason to revise the culture and stop the rich hurting everyone else, BUT – certain people have been taught abusive elitist culture for generations and have to be undermined.)
You have a choice. The answer to this for all of us is very simple. It sounds a little crazy at first, but it will work. Vote for the Communist party in the next Federal election. They won’t get in but they will get Labour in, and get seats themselves, pushing the labour half of the big corporate fascist duopoly (which serves only the Gina’s of the country and their paid political bum boys) to the left and getting the unions back into play. It’s not like it will ruin the country. It will just stop fat rat conservatives and their religiofascist buddies from abusing and slaving everyone that is not in their church/lodge/fraternity/golf/chambers/society club.
Get a government that is so left wing that work for the dole will be considered the bad conservative fake-moral slave driver joke that it is.
Also, it’s obvious that many people who are well qualified to contribute to society in other ways such as government work, law, education, and other well trained professionals are being bastardised by greedy small minded middle man for-profit job providers, whose employees’ best skill is tall poppy syndrome, and best character trait is bitterness and making themselves feel better by taking others down a notch.
If you want to get these conservative fake-moral jokers out of the way of your betterment and upward mobility (educating yourself for better careers and contributing more to society and yourself) then vote for the Communist Party and get a left wing union friendly labour.
It will work.
Bruce you sound like a paid communist party member. Stalin loving bum boi.
Okay. I think we have well and truly established that the whole concept of Work For The Dole is POISON.
The problem to be overcome is not that it exists, but rather that we are all expecting a government that cares nothing for any citizen worth less than a 6 figure salary, to give two bits about changing any part of the situation regarding Australia’s unemployment. Sadly we complain to a government that simply doesn’t want to know – after all, how does their retirement fund gain from genuinely caring about the unemployed?
What we as a nation/population fail to do, is to place any real pressure on the government. One person (or even one thousand people) complaining at the top of their lungs will not budge a government. The real threat of losing money and/or power DOES. An Australian Prime Minister is sadly never thrown out of office for failing to deliver on promises – as this is seen as the norm. We like to laugh at them and spread funny pictures in the newspapers, but what do we accomplish? Election time comes around again, and once again we choose between two lying dullards who do virtually nothing to better their nation.
But again, this fails to address the fact that it is the entire system that is broken – not just our government. As such, the threat to the fragile status quo should be proportionate to exact such change. Would you keep flying with an airline when you knew their planes were old bombs that guzzled fuel (driving up ticket fares)? Of course not. And if capitalism fails – as it essentially has, what then? Do we complain to government, or do we move away from capitalism and find something that works?
Where the general population at large are prepared to make a decisive move to be rid of all that stagnates and festers – THIS is how nations evolve.
Sadly, this is not Australia.
Why do we have to sign what I perceive to be a contract to participate in a WFTD program? I am no lawyer but I would have presumed that I would have agreed to participate in this program when I first signed up for Newstart Benefits.
@ Wade
The Clink doesn’t administer WFTD placements. Clink are just there as the overarching slave owners. Its the providers who scrape their living out of whipping you into submission. No mass slave owner in history ever “belittled” themselves by doing their own slave driving. Signing a form from your provider basically gives your “Jobinactive” provider legal permission to oversee your pointless “slavery for the dole” placement and to punish you if you don’t show up.
And besides – we all know the government LOVES contracts for everything from casual employment to wiping their own behinds.
I just refused to WFD dole today because I couldn’t see what extra skills would it equip a 40 yr old, post grad in my field, 15 yrs work experience. My job requires me to be tech savvy as well so by doing work for ngo where I’m packing the shelves didn’t make sense to me!!! I don’t know how will that assist me in my next job. I rather go without the pmt n continue looking for work n in next 13 weeks if I still can’t find a job in my industry I will put in a Newstart allowance claim in Jan 2018. This will mean I don’t have to work for dole for another 12mths. The fact is that for every job advertised there are 10 ppl applying there isn’t enough jobs in the economy so people are employed. Govt needs to accept this reality rather than demonising genuine job seekers
Are JNP’s funded from money allocated to welfare? If yes, what size is their portion? It would be of no surprise if their involvement results in welfare expenditure greater than the cost of simply paying benefits to the unemployed – without “indignity under duress”. Remember, were there not less jobs available than the number of unemployed, then unemployment benefits would not exist. It follows that mechanisms which do not create extra “economic growth” employment vacancies, but merely force financilly coerced submission do nothing more than contribute to dangerous (anti-democratic) culture of compliance necessary for success of barbaric fascist regimes. Wake up!
Have the new rules done a run around on our rights NOT to work for the dole?
At the bottom of page 12, in https://docs.employment.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/managing_and_monitoring_mor_and_job_plan_guideline.pdf , we find this line:
> If the job seeker fails to actively participate in the voluntary Work for the Dole activity then a provider should consider replacing it with an alternative compulsory activity so the job seeker can meet their Annual Activity Requirement. For example, the job seeker could be compelled to do some voluntary work to achieve the required hours each fortnight. The job seeker should not receive the Approved Program of Work Supplement in a fortnight in which they did not actively participate in Work for the Dole.
That seems to mean that if you don’t voluntarily work for the dole because your allowance is reduced from employment, then you can be compelled to do “voluntary” work to get your dole instead? (And without the supplement too!).
Is this true? Am I reading that right?
Okay, I’ve looked further into this… and I think I see a way around it. I’m just sharing with others in case this might be useful to people who can earn a little bit of work casually self employed… maybe you do the dishes for people or something, I don’t know.
My goal is to get as much out of NewStart as possible, with as little work as possible. To me it’s a government grant and I will only do what is required to remain eligible for the grant (like any good businessman would), but no more. On the other hand, I am eligible for it, so f**k anyone who wants to cry about it. Shove your morals up your a**… this is a matter of law, not your moral high horse sh*t Kim.
I’m quite lucky in many regards and all I really need is a couple hundred dollars a week… which the dole provides… and I (like any rational person) am really only interested in the MARGINAL value I get from work. So, too much work causes a marginal effective tax rate of over 70% (I just can’t be motivated for f all an hour)… that won’t do. (Can you spell welfare trap?). Nor am I going to do work for the dole for an effective rate of 67c an hour if I could avoid it! Who the hell in their right mind would? Am I in Africa?
I looked into what activities count for the Annual Activity Requirement… and part time work is counted here[1].
But I don’t want to earn much more than $104 / fortnight… because then I hit a 50% effective tax rate as my dole is reduced… but it must be reduced or else work for the dole applies.
So, when I report, I’m going to be self employed, earn $105 / fortnight… and that will take me about 30 hours a fortnight. Which means I will be exempt from work for the dole (because my dole payment will be reduced by 50c), and I will be exempt from other activities (like volunteer work) because I will be fulfilling my annual activity requirement hours.
The big problem here is that I am only making $3.50 an hour! That’s less than the minimum wage… but as a self employed sole trader that turns out to be okay because there is no minimum wage on self employment[2]! When you consider all the time (marketing, meetings, canvasing, obtaining supplies, customer relations) and costs involved in washing dishes for your neighbours, this makes sense… I think I should be alright… at least on paper.
Some Cons:
– You will have to use up your working credits, and you won’t earn working credits. This can have significant effects if you get paid work later on. So far I’ve only worked up until my working credits run out… then they don’t want to employ me for some reason? So this doesn’t affect me much (yes, I’m lucky). Now I’m entering the WftD phase, this is far less relevant… better to not work at all! (Can you spell welfare trap?)
– You might not be counted in the official unemployment statistics. Might be important to professional agitators against ignorance like myself.
– Not yet tested… Job providers and clink can be tricky pieces of scum, so beware! But I’ll let you know how it goes in a few months.
– You still have to apply for work and take any work offered to you, but who wants to employ someone who doesn’t want to be there? It’ll only take them a few days to work it out, but be subtle! Sad that a person who really wants the job misses out in the meantime.
I’m not actually washing dishes… I will be doing something else… and you can too! If you want to try this idea, but no one is giving you actual money, then consider that you might be getting paid in kind with conversation and smiles from the nice people you probably know! Payment in kind is taxable and declarable too! Be creative!
Always reinvest excess earnings back into capital. These don’t count as income… but might affect deeming rates, and too much capital and you’re no longer eligible for the dole (but that’s about $200k, a fair bit of detergent, so who cares?). Remember to be honest with clink regarding your circumstances.
I hope this proves useful to someone. Please let me know.
Does anyone see any problems with this? Do you think it will work?
PS: For anyone who understands economics, or even if you don’t… look into the UBI (unconditional basic income) concept as a far saner alternative to all this dole nonsense! (Can you spell welfare trap?).
PPS: This is legit, but I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. It’s just what I’m planning on doing.
[1]: http://guides.dss.gov.au/guide-social-security-law/3/2/10/10
[2]: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/independent-contractors
I created a “Self Employed” ’employer’ on my centrelink report, and reported that I had worked 8 hours for $1. I got the following message when I submitted my report:
> Your report has been submitted successfully, but cannot be automatically processed:
> Your report was not successful because we need to confirm details in relation to your employment income.
im a 20 year old boilermaker by trade and i currently live in a remote town, my only “job” agency hasn’t offered me any job postions for over 9 months, iv been at wfd for nearly 15months straight. i took a 3 month leave of no pay because my agency refused to accept doctor certificates for depression after my bestfriend passed away an i myself was not in a good state, so i went without my measly $319 a fortnight. (covered rent an 2 weeks of canned food)
i havent had a break from my wfd and i thought i was supposed to every 6 months, not only that im moved from my activity a few times a week to someone elses group(after i sign on of course) when ever they need someone to weld shed/building frames in unsafe conditions (no fire extingushers, bucket of water an rags) and if i dont do it my payments are threatened.
what are my rights? because currently they are using me as a slave where they nolonger need to call in professionals, im being underpaid by 35dollars an hour x 42 hours a a fortnight is $1470 if this was a proper job. iv gone to several centerlink offices but they cant do anything because thats the only job provider im allowed to use because of my area. im not even allowed to use one that a hour away. at this point they have ruined a young 20 year old. iv been homeless and starving, sold all my possession just so i could get another week by and now iv been with them again for 3 months with the back on track program (i go 2 days wfd 3 days for apointments an personal reasons), lastweek they cancelled my back on track an put me to 4 days a week and they refuse to let me go back on it without going to all my councilor , an doctor and bringing them the same paperwork that they have on file and the girls in the office told me im just lazy and dont want to work even though iv always brought in a updated resume everytime i rejoined and checked the jobboard which never has more then 5 jobs on it
Socialism at it finest make cost of living high keep us poor and make us work for $5.60 an hour the salvos store is the biggest smug place you will work while the manger gets paid by the hour all the volunteers and work for the dole people are slaves while they treat you like crap
Completely understand what you said Kim.
Perspective.
Some days the perspective can be different from the last one, but as you said, we can always request a new consultant or job provider if we are unhappy with a situation.
The people taking stabs at you have stressful perspectives currently, so can’t blame their response to you, Sometimes easier saying nothing, none the less what you said makes perfect sense and I’m sure on a better day some of these people would see the good intention also.
What are my rights? Im doing an approved WFD activity. It’s the school holidays (not Christmas holidays) and I’m the principal carer of a special needs child under 16. I’m on carer Allowance/ payment ( I cant remember which) and I cant leave my child unsupervised . My payments have been cancelled and I cant get a response put of my job agency.
I had an accident recently,while at an approved WFTD activity. The accident resulted in a machine cutting into 3/4 of my right index finger. I severed a nerve and a tendon and nicked an artery. All healed now but my finger still hurts like hell and is now forever mangled. I was told that because of my accident , that no compensation can ever happen. Because I wasn’t working at a ‘normal paying job’ – then I get nothing. How is this fair ??
When I started to do WFD I had to sign a form saying any injury you encounter will not be covered any form of compo so you get nothing however they did say the company will pay 90% of you doctors bills
I just started another phase of work for dole ,at induction this week we were told that in our shift of 9 to 5 can only have a half hour break ,either take ,30 minutes for lunch or two by 15 minutes for morning /afternoon tea,they said they were given strict instructions by job network provider that no longer are morning tea ,afternoon tea ,and lunch included more then this time ,we must pick before our morning tea which break times will we take our 30 minutes,,I said but I’m sure our job providers get there breaks ,not only ,30 minutes as we must ,manager replied well that is what I been told to do ,,,anyone sure before I complain and to whom ,,what department,,,bad enough these salvo store s ,employ paid employees only on casual basis but they must still volunteer time to keep position ,,what around system I think to save wages and get free labour ,and these women get to keep their payments by only getting paid work for 15 hours ,,
I have been assigned 30 hours per fortnight Work for the dole. I am a principal carer and explained to the job provider as I am aged over 30 I only need to do 15 hours per fortnight. He said I was wrong and I needed to do it or Id face having my payment cut. Is that correct
I have been assigned 30 hours per fortnight Work for the dole. I am a principal carer and explained to the job provider as I am aged over 30 I only need to do 15 hours per fortnight. He said I was wrong and I needed to do it or Id face having my payment cut. Is that correct
Very interesting points. Clever, now if I can utilize some of your strategy with my goal to gain meaningful and at least, a small degree of fulfillment in paid employment, I will be on a winner. Do you have email so I can ask a few questions?
Why is it fair that I’ll be essentially working for approximately $10.50 an hour on a 60 hour fortnite and the cost to travel exceeds the 20 dollars extra a fortnite that I get.. Where is fair work involvement pretty sure minimum wage is a lot higher than that… But because of my circumstance and lack of education I struggle to find work.
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Work for the dole does not prepare me for skills, it does not pay the bills, and there are no job offers, instead there is scant work at the workplace, no provision of work uniform, no adequate tools, lack of supervision, no safety gear, just lousy work that you must find yourself to keep busy unless you have been supervised to do a specific job. I. study but still have to work for the dole. I cannot pay my bill, cannot afford rego, must catch tram and bus or 2 buses there and back. I am unable to eat properly because I work for the dole, even the employment provider pays for my fees to study, I still have to work for the dole. i am over 55. Are there jobs for long term unemployed that provide a living to pay bills and be able to look after oneself properly?
What is ment to happen if my supervisor doesn’t show up at my work for dole
I just called in sick as I can’t make my WFTD activity. They told me i need to get a doctors certificate but I’ve tried ringing five places and nobody has any spots. Will i get in trouble if i dont have a certificate?
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I am 62 years of age, have a good brain and lots of life skills, including many years of working. However, I have been unemployed now for just over 2 years and so ‘lucky me’ got to join the ranks of the unemployed and WFTD. I have been reminded on a few occasions that my age is against me in finding any kind of employment. That is right, told by a Centrelink officer, a Centrelink Health assessment officer and no less than than 2 APM caseworkers that my age is against me. Lo and behold, of course, how ignorant of me to overlook the fact that Australia has a huge age discrimination invisible policy that is in force. Don’t even get me started on all the other forms of discrimination this country practices every day. Forgive me, I digress. What I want to know is why in hell does this pathetic excuse of a government continue to force us ‘old folk’, us ‘past our used by date’, chuck us into landfill why don’t you, look for work which we will never get. So, for the next 4.5 years I will have to do jobseeker until I get to the ripe old age of 67 when I will apparently qualify for the aged pension, presuming there will even be a pension by then, or chances are the idiots, the powers that be will raise the pension age yet again. Now tell me this, if I can’t find employment at age 62, what the hell are my chances of finding employment at ages 63, 64, 65 and 66??? NONE I TELL YOU, NONE!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS YOU MORONIC GOVERNMENT FW’s!!!!! I am just waiting for the government to introduce mandatory euthanasia for us mature aged folk so they can save plenty of moola to shove into their corrupt pockets. So over this dictatorship of a government. There are no honourable leaders anymore, only self serving, egomaniacs who care only about themselves, yet expect us to vote for them. What exactly are we voting for???? The only country that fines and threatens its people with imprisonment if you choose not to vote. That is not a democracy, that is communism. In the interim, I will continue to look for work that I will never get and wait for 67.
Work for the Dole for me has been a mixed bag.
The first WfD I completed was with an Indigenous organisation in Redfern, and the people there were very relaxed to the point they didn’t care if you turned up or not, and they marked you off as having attended anyway. The job entailed sorting through boxes of clothes and general office cleaning but when I was there, I was not required to do any of that so essentially I came in to get an attendance record. The other participants there watched television or played computer games all day.
The second WfD was dreadful. It was run by a Muslim Lebanese couple in Alexandria. They ran a computer course and cafe business. Very disorganised and not very knowledgeable. They marked some participants as not having attended, even though they had signed off their name that day. There was bullying and verbal abuse, from both the staff are other participants. Some days staff turned up late, so people were waiting around for hours just to get inside for attendance. Toilets there were always out of order. Avoid.