Category Archives: Announcements

Open letter to Senators

Dear Senator,
 
As the Secretary of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (AUWU), on the 13th of November I gave evidence at the Senate Committee inquiry into the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Further Strengthening Job Seeker Compliance) Bill 2015.
 
By proposing to give the already dysfunctional and unregulated Employment Services Industry unprecedented new powers to financially penalise unemployed workers, this bill represents a devastating attack on Australia’s most vulnerable.
 
The risks associated with this bill are exacerbated by Centrelink’s inherently flawed compliance system in which unemployed workers will have a penalty amount deducted from their entitlement before they have the opportunity to appeal against the decision.
 
Despite the irrefutable evidence given by the AUWU demonstrating the inherent dangers posed by this bill, the Senate Committee released its report recommending that the Senate pass the bill.
 
I am writing to you personally to implore you to closely consider the consequences of giving the privatised and largely unregulated Employment Services Industry the power to financially penalise unemployed workers for offences they may not have even committed.
 
As the proposed ‘No Show, No Pay’ penalty (10% reduction of Newstart entitlement) will be imposed well before the unemployed worker will have the opportunity to appeal against the decision, this Bill leaves goes against the principles of procedural fairness and natural justice to which the Australian Government is committed.
 
Since the launch of our advocacy hotline, we have been made aware of a number of cases where unemployed workers have had ‘No Show, No Pay’ penalties imposed on them for offences they did not even commit.
 
Daryl McDonald and Branka Chapman are two such cases which we brought up at the Senate Committee and can be read in a recent article published in the New Matilda.
 
Considering that the Employment Services Industry is already guilty of treating people unfairly, giving these private organisations more powers to financially penalise the unemployed is a grave error which will result in untold harm for Australia’s most vulnerable.
 
The AUWU has witnessed first hand the psychological, economic and physical distress an incorrect ‘No Show No Pay’ penalty can inflict upon someone.
 
Giving the Employment Services Industry the power to impose this penalty with next to no Government oversight will undoubtedly lead to widespread abuse by unscrupulous Employment Service Providers and will create a culture of fear and desperation which will only push the unemployed further into poverty and ultimately away from employment.
 
It is for this reason we ask you, for the sake of all disadvantaged Australians, to vote down this punitive bill.
 
Given the clear structural flaws existing within the Employment Services Industry, the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is calling for the establishment of a Government body specifically designed to regulate and police the Employment Service Provider industry.
 
We also would like to point out that punishing the unemployed will not help them into work. The only thing that can lead to employment is the urgently needed job creation programs to rectify Australia’s current unemployment crisis in which there are, according to the most recent Government statistics, 11.25 job seekers competing for each job vacancy.
 
Kind regards,
 
Owen Bennett
Secretary
Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union
(03) 8394 5266

AUWU Opening Statement to Senate Committee

Today is the worst time in Australian post-war history to be unemployed. The AUWU have identified three major attacks currently being directed against unemployed workers.

Firstly there is the low rate of Newstart, which is currently $381.10 per fortnight below the poverty line for a single unemployed worker, assuming they are receiving maximum rent assistance. The last time Newstart was increased in real terms was in 1994.

Secondly, there is Australia’s ongoing unemployment crisis. Going by the most recent figures released by the ABS and the Department of Employment, there are 11.25 job seekers competing for each job vacancy. This ratio is at a record high and has led to the average duration of unemployment being in excess of three and a half years –an increase of more than 300% since 1995.

Finally, there is the increasingly punitive array of activities and appointments that are being imposed on unemployed workers by a privatised and largely unregulated Employment Services Industry.

This crisis is an uncomfortable reality for Australian politicians who are at the very least complicit in the shameful manner in which unemployed workers are being treated.

Rather than implementing the job creation programs that are so urgently needed to help the 1.8 million Australians looking for work, these chambers have instead continued to attack and vilify the unemployed creating generations of disadvantage.

I have brought with me today a collection of experiences from 14 unemployed workers and one former Max Employment consultant to clearly illustrate this point. I encourage all Senators present to read it.

The bill before us today represents one of the worst attacks ever launched on the unemployed in this country.

By giving the privately run Employment Service Industry sweeping new powers to impose immediate financial penalties on unemployed workers, this bill will only serve to deepen their disadvantage – ultimately pushing them further away from employment. On this basis, the AUWU recommends that the bill be rejected in its entirety.

As the Labor party have recently indicated that they will oppose 3 of the 5 proposals in this bill, today I will focus my attentions on the other 2 apparently more popular proposals – namely the proposal to subject all unemployed workers to an immediate No Show No Pay penalty if they miss an activity, and the proposal to give Employment Service Providers expanded powers to penalise unemployed workers who fail to provide adequate proof of their job searches.

There are four major issues the Australian Unemployed Workers Union would like to raise about expanding the No Show No Pay penalty to all activities.

Firstly, the immediate No Show No Pay penalty eliminates the small window unemployed workers currently have to appeal against an unfair decision before their payment is reduced. It is worth noting that there is little protection in the act against Providers implementing this penalty arbitrarily and unfairly. These issues apply to all No Show No Pay penalties proposed in the bill.

Secondly, the proposal will lead to more cases of unemployed workers being bullied and intimidated by their Employment Service Provider. This concern is made all the more pressing considering the perverse incentives given to Employment Service Providers to penalise unemployed workers.

Thirdly, if the current average penalty duration of 2.8 days continues, this proposal will result in sanctioned unemployed workers being docked at least 20% of their already insufficient Newstart entitlement. It must be recognised that docking an unemployed workers’ entitlement – even for one day – can result in considerable impoverishment & anxiety, which can lead to a cycle of mental illness, isolation and further penalties, which will inevitably drive unemployed workers away from employment – the opposite of what this bill intends.

Finally, the Australian Unemployed Workers Union is deeply concerned that the time taken to ‘reengage’ with an activity could be even longer given the sporadic and unreliable nature of some activities.

Moving along to the proposal regarding job search penalties, I would like to draw the Committee’s attention to four areas of concern.

Firstly, unemployed workers in regional areas will be disproportionally affected by this proposal.

Secondly, the proposal will lead to job search becoming a box-ticking exercise for many unemployed and prevent them concentrating their efforts on realistic jobs.

Thirdly, there is no evidence to suggest this proposal is necessary. According to the department, since 2013 only 22 unemployed workers were investigated by DHS for poor job search. Out of these cases, DHS found no evidence of improper conduct and did not implement one single penalty.

And finally, as there is no explicit guidance in the Act of how this penalty will be implemented, there are no protections against Employment Service Providers applying this measure arbitrarily and unfairly.

I look forward to addressing any questions the Committee may have.

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCES

Henderson Poverty line, Melbourne institute release for June Quarter ($1035.1 per fortnight for a single with housing costs)


Maximum amount of Newstart including rent assistance: $654

ABS Labour Force September (released 15 October)

Job Vacancies (released in September)

Long Term unemployment stats: 2012 statistic qtd. in Disabled, Work and Welfare: Doing the ‘Hard Yakka’: implications of Australia’s workfare policies for disabled people. Alan Morris, Shaun Wilson and Karen Soldatic


Calling Unemployed Workers for Submissions!

The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union have been invited to give evidence at the senate committee public hearing into the proposed Social Security Legislation Amendment (Further Strengthening Job Seeker Compliance) Bill 2015. The public hearing will be held in Canberra at Parliament house on the morning of Friday the 13th of November.

The AUWU will be sending at least one representative to convey our grave concerns regarding the changes proposed in the bill, which if approved will give Employment Service Providers sweeping new powers to financially penalise unemployed workers. Our specific concerns are all available for you to read in our submission to the committee, available here.

To help us effectively oppose the proposal, we strongly encourage all unemployed workers to send us submissions of their experiences with employment service providers.

Specifically, we are looking for unemployed workers who have been sanctioned or financially penalised by their employment service provider to tell us about their experiences, with a particular focus on those who have received ‘No Show Ho Pay’ penalties.

In your submission to the AUWU, be sure to include information regarding:

1) The reason the Employment Service Provider gave for penalising you;
2) Whether you thought the penalty was justified or if you appealed against the penalty;
3) What were the practical effects of the penalty (i.e. did it cause you financial hardship, how did it effect your job search efforts, etc).

Please send your submissions to contact@unemployedworkersunion.com and we may table it at the senate committee.

If you would like to give evidence in person at the committee, send us an email to tell us why.

Counter Conference Announced

In November, Max Employment is ‘Gold Sponsoring’ a 2-day conference called Long Term Unemployment.

This conference costs $650 for a concession ticket.

How is the conference going to come to terms with the reality of long term unemployment when this high cost will exclude those who are actually unemployed from attending and sharing their experiences?

Instead of unemployed workers being given a chance to inform people of their experiences of long term unemployment, the organisers prefer to allow corporations like Max Employment the chance to influence policy in this area.

By continuing the long standing tradition of excluding the unemployed from having any input into policy regarding the treatment of unemployed workers, this conference will pave the way for more out of touch Government policies in this area.

To provide unemployed workers a much needed voice, the Australian Unemployed Workers Union is organising an all-day counter conference on the 9th of November entitled ‘Unemployed Workers’ Speak Out’. For the facebook event, click here.

This event will be held out the front of the Max Employment Sponsored conference (192 Wellington Parade) and will give unemployed workers the long overdue chance to share their experiences on the reality of unemployment in Australia.

If the policy makers do not want the unemployed at their conference, then we must come to them!


UPDATE 1

The Australian Unemployed Workers Union is glad to announce our first two unemployed workers who are speaking at our counter-conference outside the Max Employment-sponsored, $650 priced conference into ‘Long Term Unemployment’ being held in the Melbourne CBD.

Our first speaker will be Branka, who has for the last 6 weeks been involved in an ongoing dispute with Max Employment.
What was her crime? She got a letter in the mail saying she was cut off for not attending an appointment. But that catch is, not only was she not informed about the appointment, she was not even informed she had been transferred to Max Employment!
How is someone meant to go to an appointment they do not even know about?

Come on Monday to hear Branka tell us more about her case.
Our second speaker is Daryl, who recently was given a $54.88 penalty for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ from his job agency for listening to music on his computer during an activity.

According to Daryl, they did not even ask him to turn the music off – they just fined him without even telling him.
Daryl will be coming on Monday to tell us all about it.
More speakers to be announced.

Come along 9am, Monday the 9th of November and get informed about the reality of unemployment.

To RSVP sign up here: http://unemployedworkersunion.com/unemployed-workers-speak/

 

 

UPDATE 2

 

Our third speaker for the Counter-Conference has just been confirmed.
 
Her name is Rikianya and she is vision impaired and long term unemployed. She wanted to do a presentation at the Max Employment sponsored conference on her experiences of long term unemployment, but the organisers insisted she pay $650 to do so.
 
This is completely contradicts a letter the AUWU received yesterday from the ‘conference secretariat’ informing us they “always try and include suitable lived experience presenters; they are always offered free registration if selected.”
 
A quick look at the program and the absence of actual unemployed people becomes very clear. However, Max Solutions – the billion-dollar US owned parent company of Max Employment – has 3 separate presentations at the conference. ‘Gold sponsoring’ the event clearly pays off.
 
In fact, out of the total of at least 53 presentations happening at the Max Employment sponsored conference, 19 are Employment Service Providers and representatives, 2 are labour hire companies, 13 are charities, 9 are academics, 4 are government figures, 5 are companies, and only one is an advocate.
 
Not one of these people on the program presenting are actually unemployed. Exactly how is the conference meant to get a clear picture of the reality of unemployment?
 
Luckily for them, we will be there with at least three great speakers informing them of this reality.
 
Come down at 8am to help us flyer the speakers as they arrive!