The AUWU will be organising a advocacy course via correspondence in late September.
Once students complete the course, they will considered for volunteering within the AUWU advocacy services.
The course will be open to everyone.
Please register your interest by RSVPing here.
More information:
AUWU Advocacy Services Homepage
AUWU Stories and Forum
We invite you to share your story by taking this survey.
The AUWU is collecting stories from unemployed people about their experiences with job agencies. We will collate these stories into a report which makes a clear case that the job agency system is not working. Telling your story helps us to build this case.
Please fill out this 5 minute survey.
For those using their phones, click here for a more phone-friendly version of the survey.
Last month, Minister Cash labelled the AUWU an “offensive” organisation “whose sole purpose appeared to be “keeping members out of gainful employment and encouraging them to shirk their responsibilities”.
Cash did not offer any proof of this. It appears she just wanted to bully us because we are unemployed people trying to stand up for ourselves.
Today we a hitting back with our #CallOutCash campaign.
As part of this campaign, we are asking all our members and supporters to #CallOutCash by filling out a short 2-minute survey about their experiences of unemployment. The answers will be collated and sent to Minister Cash and her parliamentary colleagues .
To complete the survey, click here.
Its time Minister Cash was held accountable for her bullying tactics.
Despite there being 17 job seekers competing for every job vacancy going by the official figures, Minister Cash still treats unemployed workers like we are the problem.
It is time we let Cash know that the Coalition government is the problem.
Why aren’t they creating more jobs? Why are they handing $10 billion of government money to private companies who fail to help unemployed workers? Why are they condemning unemployed workers to a life of poverty on a payment that is $380 per fortnight per fortnight below the poverty line?
Please share throughout your networks and lets send Minister Cash a clear message.
The AUWU is petitioning Ed Husic, the shadow Minister of employment services, to establish a Senate inquiry into the broken job agency system. Please click here to view and sign the petition.
The $10 billion employment services system is one of the biggest and most socially destructive rorts ever perpetuated against a Federal government
Every day, private job agencies bully unemployed workers into attending dangerous Work for the Dole sites and other unfair activities in order to make a quick buck.
Unemployed workers who refuse to be bullied into one of these unfair activities are penalised.
During 2015/16, job agencies imposed a record 2,114,291 million penalties on unemployed workers – up from 311,622 in 2011.
Many penalties are unfair – 37.5% of unemployed workers who appealed against a penalty had it overturned by Centrelink. Since 2011, the rate of job agency decisions overturned by Centrelink has increased by 15% – a clear sign the system is broken.
The failure of the government to regulate the industry and penalise abusive job agencies has created a culture of fear and intimidation throughout the industry.
The suffering endured by the 900,000 unemployed workers participating in this system is incalculable
The tragic death of Josh Park Fing at his Work for the Dole site in Toowoomba – one of the 64% of WFTD sites that do not meet basic safety standards – is a product of this punitive and broken system.
The punitive job agencies system must be addressed immediately.
A Senate inquiry is the first step. The ALP has the power to make this happen.
Click here to sign the petition.
The AUWU has 5 tickets to give away to AUWU members for the Right2Work Conference in Melbourne on 21 July (valued at $25 each).
To win a ticket, write a letter to Minister Cash at senator.cash@aph.gov.au explaining how the Coalition’s failure to address the employment crisis has affected you.
Post your letter on your facebook or twitter with the #Right2Work hash tag.
The Right2Work conference features renowned experts John Falzon (St Vincent De Paul), Jim Stanford (Australian Institute), Warwick Smith (Per Capita) and Steve Keen (economist) who will discuss Australia’s employment crisis and how the government should address it.
The best five letters will win a ticket. Winners will be announced on Monday 17th of July.