Author Archives: AUWU

Over the next two weeks, the AUWU is holding three free advocacy training sessions for people who are interested in joining our dynamic team of advocacy volunteers.

You can attend these trainings in person at our Adelaide office, or remotely through the live-stream.

These trainings will give you the knowledge to advocate for people who need support with navigating the Jobactive and DES systems. After completing this training, you will be ready to be an advocacy volunteer. Each session is identical – so you only need to join us for one day to hit the phones and web running!

The details for the half day trainings are as follows:

Advocacy Half Day Training #1 (Tomorrow!)

When: 10:30am – 1:00pm EST (11:00am-1:30pm Adelaide Time) Wednesday, 13 November
Where: 47 King William Road, Unley, Adelaide 5061

Click here to Register for the Online Live-Stream

Advocacy Half Day Training #2
When: 10:30am – 1:00pm EST (11:00am-1:30pm Adelaide Time) Saturday, 16 November

Where: 47 King William Road, Unley, Adelaide 5061

Click here to Register for the Online Live-Stream

Advocacy Half Day Training #3

When: 10:00am – 1:00pm EST (10:30am-1:00pm Adelaide Time) Saturday, 23 November

Where: 47 King William Road, Unley, Adelaide 5061

Click Here to Register for the Online Live-Stream

The AUWU’s advocacy services are a life-line for unemployed workers. For many being unfairly treated by their employment service provider, there is nowhere else to turn.

As an unfunded advocacy service run entirely by unemployed volunteers, responding to every advocacy call and email is a challenge. Over the past few months, there has been an unprecedented demand for our service.

The AUWU is currently looking for online advocates and phone advocates to ensure that everyone who contacts our services has their issue resolved.

Please RSVP to one of the trainings on the above link.

If you cannot attend tomorrow but would like to register your interest in the advocacy program, please sign up here.

The AUWU is a volunteer organisation, with no paid staff or political affiliations. To help the AUWU continue the work it is doing, we would greatly appreciate a donation through our website here. No amount is too small.

If you would like to vote, nominate or attend the AUWU’s Annual General Meeting held next month, you must submit your application by Wednesday 23 October (applications will close at 11:59pm).

You can nominate by filling out this AGM Application Form.

The AGM will be held on Saturday 23 November 2019 at our new national office in Adelaide!

For those of you unable to make to Adelaide, don’t worry – you will be able to attend remotely if you have access to a internet connection.

Just remember, you must apply to attend before 11:59pm Wednesday 23 of October.

WHAT: AUWU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
WHEN: SATURDAY 23RD NOVEMBER
WHERE:  47 KING WILLIAM ROAD, ADELAIDE AND REMOTELY VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE
RSVP: AGM APPLICATION FORM BY 23 OCTOBER

If you would like to participate in this AGM — either by voting or nominating for one of the six positions available on the National Committee of Management (see here for more information on the positions) — you will need to meet the following two steps:

1. Be a full (voting) member of the AUWU
2. Submit a AGM Application Form by the 23rd of October 2019

As stated in AUWU rules, to qualify as a full (voting) member you must:

• be a non-full time worker (Full-time worker defined in accordance with national legislation)
• be an active volunteer member for at least six months over the previous two year period (as verified by an AUWU coordinator or delegated officer)

And finally, you will not be eligible to nominate for a Committee of Management position if you currently hold a National coordinating position on our Operations Committee.

While eligible members attending the meeting in person will be able to nominate on the day, those attending remotely via the internet must nominate for a position through the AGM form.

Successful applicants to participate in the AGM will be sent further information about how to attend and vote at the AGM.

Here is to another great year in 2019-20!

Look forward to hearing from you.

Today, there are three million people looking for work in Australia.

The AUWU demands the government address this crisis by implementing a Green Jobs Guarantee, first in regional areas, and then nation wide.

You can read the outline of our Green Jobs Guarantee for regional areas here.

Everyone deserves a right to dignified employment and social security.

The proposal was written by Connor Jolley (RMIT University) and Professor Rob Watts (RMIT University), in consultation with the AUWU.

If you would like to get involved in our Green Jobs Guarantee campaign, sign up to volunteer here. 

The AUWU has no funding or political affiliations and relies entirely on donations and the work of our unemployed volunteers. Become a monthly contributor here. Not amount is too small.

We just presented Sarina Russo with the inaugural ‘Golden Demerit’ certificate of suffering for his services toward the deprivation of unemployed workers’ dignity!

Here is AUWU President Owen Bennett handing over the prestigious gong to Sarina Russo’s Victorian Manager Adrian Jenkins at yesterdays ‘award ceremony’. Video to come shortly!

Due to the hard work of Adrian and his team, the majority of AUWU members who called our hotline over the last month ‘nominated’ Sarina Russo for the Golden Demerit Certificate of Suffering.

Congratulations Adrian!

How to Nominate
If you missed your opportunity to vote in last month’s Golden Demerit, don’t worry – the voting for October’s Golden Demerit is now open.

You can nominate your job agency by telling your story on the AUWU forum here.

Join the Campaign

If you would like to present a Golden Demerit Certificate of Suffering award to your local Sarina Russo office, please sign up to our campaigns team here or send us an email here.

Support the Campaign

The AUWU is a volunteer organisation run by the unemployed for the unemployed with no paid staff or political affiliations. To help the AUWU continue the work it is doing, we would greatly appreciate a donation through our website here. No amount is too small.

Golden Demerit Profile: Sarina Russo

A lot of people come to the AUWU for help with their difficult jobactive / DES agencies through our advocacy hotline and we keep tabs on which ones we hear about the most. In 2018-19, private job agencies like Sarina Russo processed 2.3 million payment suspensions. According to the Guardian, one in five are later found to be incorrect.

Sarina Russo wins the prize for the most dishonourable mentions (well, actually it was a close tie between Sarina Russo and Max Employment and Sarina wins the coin toss). Sarina Russo represented 13% of cases we dealt with on the advocacy line. The agency is currently celebrating 40 years of operation, which means 40 years of making millions on government contracts to be the parole officers of the unemployed.

The way the job agency system is set up, private agencies are incentivized to punish for profit. Some agencies take this to extreme lengths. The JobActive and Disability Employment Service agencies have at their fingertips the ability to cut people off Newstart – effectively forcing people into dire poverty and potential homelessness. There is no oversight by the government, and unemployed workers have no right of appeal.

With the flick of a button they like to send people into financial panic – too many times this is because of a mistake made by the agency or because the claimant didn’t meet some absurd expectations of ‘compliance’. These agencies make enormous profits from government contracts, for example Sarina Russo’s 2015-2020 contract is worth $606M. For all that money they do very little when it comes to genuinely helping people find suitable work – its money wasted on a bureaucratic wormhole of meaningless activities that we’re forced to participate in. We can’t let them get away with this anymore. Let’s make an example of the worst offenders. They exploit us, bully us, force us into poverty and bore us to death but together we can shut them down!

Data from our hotline:

38% of complaints on our advocacy line were due to a failure to provide basic services
36% were about Job agency bullying
94.2% reported that job agencies had not explained their rights to job seekers.

Very Common problems with Sarina Russo include:

Bullying from staff
Being forced to attend a ridiculous amount of appointments or activities
Basic privacy not being respected
Being unfairly forced into work for the dole
Being denied reasonable notice for appointments and activities
Medical conditions not being recognised.