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
Dont vote to penalise the poorest australian,s not that you give a rats.