Author Archives: AUWU

I Was Forced To Work With Asbestos at Work for the Dole – A first hand account

Sandor Szolnoki, AUWU Member

Attention everyone: recently i was placed into a Work for the Dole (wftd) activity which was ok basically just painting a gymnasium, the supervisors on that project were good but that activity stopped after 2 months I had completed I was risk assessment prior and even trained in manual handling.

Now I’ve been placed into a new wfd that is renovating a old house without been risk assessed which i have to attend for another 6 months and the supervisor there is basically a slave driver and non safety compliant the second day I attended on the site he instructed me to remove soil to install paving which having a short look i FOUND ASBESTOS so i refused to work in that area.

The day before I removed some material from that area and NOW there is a possibility of ME being EXPOSED to ASBESTOS I put in a incident report with my supervisor who did not believe it was ASBESTOS so he collected the ASBESTOS material and took it to a ASBESTOS MANAGEMENT CENTER with me to doubt my belief that it was.The management center CONFIRMED THAT IT IS ASBESTOS AND ALSO WILL BE TESTED FOR GRADE and the dwelling was on the asbestos register but all asbestos was supposed to have been removed and there was a warning sticker on the window of the wfd house which my supervisor removed which stated before commencing work on site refer to ASBESTOS REGISTER which he did not . I have also contacted SAFE WORK SA who will be investigating the incident and I will pursuit to my best abilities I will relay they outcome of my situation as the investigation goes on so BEWARE any one who has to attend WFD and basically forced to do any unsafe work or in unsafe working conditions to avoid being cut off from centrelink benefits.

“My son has been cut off his payments every couple of months for as long as I can remember” – A Mother’s Story

I am writing this letter on behalf of my Austistic son who has
nominated me as a spokesperson since he is on the brink of suicide
again and is unable to put his owns words into any understandable
order. I don’t even know how to deal with it myself, since he
inherited the Autism gene from me (I’m on DSP incidentally).

My son’s story to date is almost identical to Leigh Markovic’s story.

My son was first diagnosed in 2009 by our family autism specialist due
to difficulties in dealing with Centrelink and employment agencies
which caused him great despair and depression. A few months later that
specialist received accreditation as an ‘approved’ Centrelink DMV
authority who strongly recommended my son be put on DSP due to lack of
disability services within Newstart programs. Centrelink said “he’s
young enough to cope” and denied our application. A few months later
the government changed the table of provisions and as a direct result,
our family specialist is no longer approved by Centrelink.

Fortunately, we did find an industry where my son was able to cope and
possessed the skills required (and then some). His father and I
recommended he might get a foot in the door if he volunteered to sweep
floors or answer phones for a potential employer to demonstrate
initiative. The very day my son was given an opportunity to sweep
floors and answer phones voluntarily, he was meant to attend an
appointment with his employment agent. He thought he had it in the bag
and, like Leah, decided he didn’t need unemployment benefits anymore
and let it lapse.

Since prior to my son employment opportunity I was receiving a
carer-payment for him, I immediately rang Centrelink to let them know
he wasn’t living with me anymore and (as his nominee) why he felt he
didn’t need benefits anymore. The person who took my call read out
what she was writing on his records as she wrote “Mother called to
report son is working in paid employment”. I interrupted her and said
“No, that’s not what mother called for” and repeated myself. She spoke
over the top of me and said “I’m in charge of what is written at this
end, not you”. I was muted several times and handed over to her
manager etc until eventually I hung up in tears.

A week later, my son was sent a letter stating he had to pay back 6
months worth of benefits – that is – 6 months prior to the date he
started sweeping floors. I suspect he’s almost finished paying it
today and it can’t be recovered but thought it was note-worthy for the
purpose of the exercise. The next part is what grinds my gears right
now.

My son demonstration of initiative paid off and, ultimately, he
obtained the necessary training and qualifications required of the
(currently growing and under skilled) industry to operate as a full
time skilled employee. In fact, he went one better and became a
specialist in laser technologies associated with the industry. That
was until the government introduced new laws which meant, if he
continued being employed by his current employer, he would never work
in the industry again. So he quit and started paying back the
Centrelink debt.

Along with those new laws came a government license requirement at a
hefty $800 and no guarantee of obtaining it, regardless of skill level
or niche. Like Leah, his employment agents keep saying they can’t pay
for the license and I’ve written to my local members numerous times
over the years trying to get some action on it, to no avail.

My son has been cut off his payments every couple of months for as long
as I can remember for much the same reasons/patterns as Leah. He was
cut off again last fortnight because, one street away from his
appointment venue he had a panic attack and refused to get out of my
car. We had a huge meltdown with each other and he swore at me and ran
away. The last time he did this  (last year) I found him under a
bridge with a rope in his hand saying he’d be better off hanging,
which I reported to the Minister via my local member.

I just can’t keep pushing the government’s agenda down his throat
anymore. It’s literally killing him! I don’t support pushing him into
jobs where, by default, he can’t perform and will undoubtedly be fired
over and over again, thus diminishing what little self-respect he has
left.

He’s not even allowed to advocate ASD on his resume, they keep saying
it’s a negative attribute but I’m telling you, if you want super-human
skills and abilities in this industry he’s the right man for the job.
As far as we see it, he worked very hard to get where he is and
deserves an opportunity to work in his chosen career.

I don’t understand why we can’t simply accept he’s only ever going to
have one single skill that he’s good at and help him back on his feet.
He can walk into a job tomorrow, there has never been any shortage of
offers, it’s only ever been the government stopping him.

Income Support Bonus & Other Supplements & Allowances

Sourced from Centrelink’s “A Guide to Australian Government Payments 20 September – 31 December 2016”

Income Support Bonus

  • The Income Support Bonus is a tax-free payment made twice annually to eligible recipients to assist with unexpected costs.
  • Qualifying payments include Newstart Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Special Benefit, Parenting Payment Single, Parenting Payment Partnered and Farm Household Allowance.
  • Recipients of an education allowance under the Veterans’ Children Education Scheme and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme are also eligible.
  • To be eligible a person must be under age pension age and qualified for, and in receipt of, a qualifying payment on 20 March and/or 20 September.
  • Eligible recipients are only entitled to one Income Support Bonus payment in each instalment period regardless of how many qualifying payments they receive.
  • The Income Support Bonus payment instalment rates are:
    Single
    $111.70
    Member of a couple
    $93.00
    Member of a couple separated by illness
    $111.70
    Member of a couple partner is in respite care
    $111.70
    Member of a couple partner is in prison
    $111.70
  • The payment will be paid on the earliest day on which it is reasonably practicable after the test days in March and September. The payment will be indexed to Consumer Price Index twice annually, in March and September.

The payments are not separately means-tested.

Recipients of Widow Allowance and Partner Allowance are not eligible. They will continue to be eligible for Utilities Allowance.

The Income Support Bonus is not payable to recipients who are in receipt of Pension Supplement above the Pension Supplement basic amount.

To qualify for the full amount each year, a recipient would need to be qualified for, and in receipt of one of the qualifying payments on both 20 March and 20 September.

Job Commitment Allowance

Note: The Job Commitment Bonus program will cease on 31 December 2016, subject to the repeal of enabling legislation. The program and payments will continue until the repeal date. Individuals who are qualified to claim at the time of the repeal will be able to lodge a claim for the bonus and will have 90 days to do so. Those who would have qualified after the legislative repeal date will no longer be able to lodge a claim for the bonus.

The Job Commitment Bonus is a payment to encourage long-term unemployed young Australians to find and keep work.

There are two Job Commitment Bonus payments.

Basic conditions of eligibility

For the first Job Commitment Bonus payment:

  • you must be aged 18 or over and under 31 years of age when in receipt of Newstart Allowance or Youth Allowance as a job seeker, and
  • while aged 18 or over and under 31 years of age have been in receipt of Newstart Allowance or Youth Allowance as a job seeker or a combination of both for a continuous period of at least 12 months, and
  • commenced gainful employment in Australia on or after 1 July 2014 for a continuous period of 12 months and not received an income support payment.

For the second Job Commitment Bonus payment:

  • you must be eligible to receive the first Job Commitment Bonus payment, and
  • have completed a further 12 continuous months of gainful employment in Australia and not re-ceived an income support payment.

Continuous work

A period of continuous work will include:

  • taking paid leave
  • taking up to 28 days of unpaid leave in the 12 month period
  • if undertaking more than one job in the 12 month period there can be a break of no more than five business days of unpaid leave between jobs. These days are included in the 28 days of unpaid leave calculation.

Gainful employment

Certain types of employment will not attract a Job Commitment Bonus. These may include employ-ment that:

  • does not involve sufficient financial gain or reward, for example, voluntary employment or em-ployment for less than the National Minimum Wage or Award Wage
  • does not involve substantial and consistent personal exertion, for example selling own goods on eBay or garage sales, or occasional blogging
  • involves domestic or gardening tasks at your or your family member’s place of residence or an investment property owned by yourself or a family member
  • involves caring for or doing domestic tasks for a family member or their foster child, or a person residing at your or your family member’s place of residence, or involves the management of fi-nancial investments in which you or your family member has an interest
  • involves nudity or is in the sex industry
  • contravenes Commonwealth, state or territory legislation, for example, criminal activity
  • is for the purpose of achieving election of yourself to public office
  • is undertaken as part of certain Commonwealth funded programs, for example, the Green Army Programme (in relation to certain participants) and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme
  • is done for the purpose of an academic, sporting or other scholarship
  • involves payment-in-kind or exchange of services.

Residence requirements

  • Must be an Australian citizen or permanent visa holder.

Basic rates

  • The first Job Commitment Bonus is $2,500 for 12 months of continuous gainful work.
  • The second Job Commitment Bonus is $4,000 for a further 12 months of continuous gainful work.

Income test

  • No income test.

Asset test

  • No asset test.

Pension Supplement

  • A Pension Supplement is added to the regular fortnightly payment made to recipients of Age Pension, Carer Payment, Wife Pension, Widow B Pension, Bereavement Allowance, Disability Support Pension (except if aged under 21 without children) and to certain other income support payment recipients if the person has reached age pension age.
  • The maximum Pension Supplement is currently $65.10 a fortnight for singles and $98.20 a fortnight for couples, combined.
  • The minimum Pension Supplement is an amount below which the Pension Supplement does not fall until income or assets reach a level that would otherwise reduce a total pension including Pension Supplement to nil. The minimum amount is currently $34.90 a fortnight for singles, and $52.80 for couples combined.
  • Pensioners may elect to receive the minimum pension supplement amount on a quarterly basis. Installments will be paid as soon as possible after 20 March, 20 June, 20 September and 20 December each year.
  • The Pension Supplement is paid while the person is in Australia or, if outside Australia, only while the person has the right to continue to be paid their social security payment outside Australia. After an absence of more than six weeks outside Australia, the Pension Supplement is reduced to the Pension Supplement Basic Amount.
  • The Pension Supplement Basic Amount is currently $22.70 a fortnight for singles and $37.40 a fortnight for both members of a couple, combined.
  • Recipients of Parenting Payment (Single) under age pension age have the Pension Supplement Basic Amount added to their regular fortnightly payment.

Telephone Allowance

Telephone Allowance is a quarterly payment to assist with the cost of maintaining a telephone service; it is not paid to assist with the cost of telephone calls.

Telephone Allowance is paid to telephone subscribers who receive the Disability Support Pension and who are aged under 21 years without children and to Parenting Payment (Single) recipients who are under age pension age. Telephone Allowance is also paid to telephone subscribers who receive certain social security allowance payments and are in specific circumstances.

A higher rate of Telephone Allowance is payable to recipients of Disability Support Pension who are aged under 21 years without children if they or their partner have a home internet connection.

The current rate of Telephone Allowance is $112.80 per year ($28.20 per quarter). The higher rate of Telephone Allowance is $168 per year ($42 per quarter) for home internet subscribers. This amount is shared between both members of an eligible couple.

The payment is made in January, March, July and September each year and is adjusted to increases in the Consumer Price Index in September. For most pensioners and other income support recipients who have reached age pension age, the value of Telephone Allowance has been either added into the Pension Supplement or forms part of the rate paid under transitional arrangements.

Utilities Allowance

Utilities Allowance is a quarterly payment to recipients of Widow Allowance and Partner Allowance who are under age pension age, and to Disability Support Pension recipients (under 21 without children) to assist with meeting the cost of utilities bills. The payment is made in March, June, September and December each year and is adjusted to increases in the Consumer Price Index in March and September. The current annual rate is $609.20 for singles and $304.60 for each eligible member of a couple.

For most pensioners and other income support recipients who have reached age pension age, the value of Utilities Allowance has been either added into the Pension Supplement or forms part of the rate paid under transitional arrangements.

Pharmaceutical Allowance

Rate: $6.20 per fortnight for an eligible single person, and $3.10 per fortnight for each eligible member of a couple (i.e. $6.20 in total if both members of a couple are eligible). However, where a person is a member of an illness separated couple or a respite care couple or where a partner is in prison, the rate is $6.20 per fortnight (i.e. same as for a single person).

Note: Pharmaceutical Allowance may be paid for temporary absences until the primary payment ceases, or for up to 26 weeks if the primary payment may be paid indefinitely.

For most pensioners and other income support recipients who have reached age pension age, the value of Pharmaceutical Allowance has either been incorporated into the Pension Supplement or forms part of the rate paid under transitional arrangements.

Conditions under which Pharmaceutical Allowance is paid:

Disability Support Pension
Automatically paid to those under 21 years of age without children
Parenting Payment (Single)
Automatically paid if under age pension age.
Sickness Allowance
Automatically paid.
Newstart Allowance
Must be temporarily incapacitated, or have a partial capacity to work, or be a single principal carer of a dependent child, or be over 60 years of age and have been in receipt of income support continuously for at least nine months.
Partner Allowance
Widow Allowance
Special Benefit*

Must be temporarily incapacitated, or be over 60 years of age and have been in receipt of income support continuously for at least nine months.

*Note: Special Benefit recipients are not required to be Australian residents in order to be paid Pharmaceutical Allowance.

Austudy
Must be over 60 years of age and have been in receipt of income support continuously for at least nine months.
Parenting Payment (Partnered)
Must be over 60 years of age and have been in receipt of income support continuously for at least nine months or be unable to meet participation requirements due to a temporary incapacity.
Sickness Allowance
Automatically paid.
Youth Allowance (job seeker)
Must be either temporarily incapacitated or a single principal carer of a dependent child or have a partial capacity to work.
Youth Allowance (full-time students and Australian Apprentices)
Must be temporarily incapacitated.

Note: Pharmaceutical Allowance may be paid for temporary absences until the primary payment ceases, or for up to 26 weeks if the primary payment may be paid indefinitely.

For most pensioners and other income support recipients who have reached age pension age, the value of Pharmaceutical Allowance has either been incorporated into the Pension Supplement or forms part of the rate paid under transitional arrangements.

Employment agency’s low score

VICTORIA NUGENT, Townsville Bulletin

Subscriber only

ONE  of Townsville’s biggest job agencies has received dismal ratings in a newly released Department of Employment report card.

Max Employment has rec­eived one-star ratings for its Kirwan and Townsville services and two stars for its Aitkenvale operation.

The ratings were revealed in a document outlining the September star ratings of job­active providers across the country.

Townsville’s other two job­active providers are NEATO Emp­loyment Services and CoAct. NEATO scored five stars at Aitkenvale and Thuringowa Central offices and CoAct received an overall rating of five stars for its Aitkenvale service and four stars each for Thuringowa Central and West End.

A Department of Employment spokesman said sites with higher ratings had achieved higher levels of sustained employment placements for their job seekers, particularly ones that had seen job seekers stay off income support for 26 consecutive weeks.

Sites with higher ratings have also to a greater degree ensured that job seekers have been actively engaged in act­ivities through the Work for the Dole phase.

“The Townsville region is broadly consistent with nat­ional performance, having the full range of individual site ratings from one to five stars but the majority receiving three stars or above,” the spokesman said. “As the star ratings methodology is a relative one, there will be some providers which outperform others.

“The public reporting of the star ratings can drive improvements in performance. Job seekers are also able to use star ratings when they choose their jobactive provider.”

The spokesman said guidelines for the jobactive program noted that business re-allocation was based on data from the 18-month mark, to be reached on December 31, 2016.

“The department will look at the full range of factors (inc­luding star ratings) in every ­region in Australia in determining which business will be re-allocated,” he said. “The star ratings are ­designed to drive performance improvement with providers and we expect that those with one and two star ratings will be looking to improve their performance relative to other ­providers.”

Max Employment did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

“I came close to committing suicide because of the way Max treated me” – A First Hand Account

The subject of this article and the treatment Leigh Markovic endured by Max Employment is exactly the same mental abuse I was subjected to by Max in my short time I was forced to be aligned with them.
I cannot stay quiet about what they did to me any longer, and people have a right to know about it and that it is not an odd isolated incident, but commonplace as well as ILLEGAL. Their abuse forced me onto anti-depressants and ruined my life and my health. I have paperwork to back this claim up. Imagine trying to send someone with chronic Osteoarthritis to strip dirty mattresses on a factory production line, even though they are clearly medically exempt and you just ignore a qualified assessment by a medical professional. The more I protested their actions, the more punitive they became. All the time, a job was sitting there available I was perfectly qualified for – except that employed people are no use to you because you can’t make money from them, so Max didn’t bring it to my attention.
 
I came close to committing suicide because of the way Max treated me – I couldn’t see any or any point in going on. I an very grateful to the team of medical professionals that basically supported me through this ordeal. Without them I would not be here. I am glad that people are now coming out publicly about their stories. It’s hard to talk about, and I didn’t want to do it but I feel I must at this point.I hate to think of how many people have taken their own lives at the hands of treatment from Max’s ‘business.’ I use business in inverted commas because it’s a fraudulent organisation so that makes them criminals. Most people have seen the Four Corners investigation on Max’s multi-million dollar rorts including falsifying clients’ signatures on paperwork. So this is not an opinion, it is a fact they are criminals. What did the current government do about it? They awarded them a contract that’s worth close to a billion dollars and called them ‘the best in the business.’
 
I cannot wait until Max are subject to a class action suit. I’ll be in, for sure. And you can’t say it’s ‘just a job’ and you’re working for someone else who makes the rules. You know how well that worked out at Nuremberg. That is a pathetic excuse. You are personally responsible for this. If you think you’ll get away with it, you won’t. It will catch up with you.
 
I’ll never stop activism against fraudulent, criminal organisations like Max and their treatment of the unemployed. And they ARE criminals because they break the law at every turn and then blatantly lie about it, thinking they will get away with it every single time.
Read the government deed beginning to end, then back to front, and then read it again and you’ll see. Then use ALL of it AGAINST them.