How Work For The Dole ‘Discriminates’, Even After Death    
May 3, 2016  New Matilda

The death of a young man in Queensland has provoked questions about the safety of the program, while drawing attention to the disparity between those forced to work for welfare, and those employed in a regular job.

Toowoomba, in regional Queensland, is not the place you would expect to find Australia’s chief unionist on a weekend marking international action for workers’ rights.

But in the wake of an accident that has shaken the nearby town of Meringandan, and provoked deeper questions about the treatment of Australians unable to find work, it’s where ACTU President Ged Kearney decided to spend part of the weekend, joining a procession of around 250 people commemorating May Day.

Two weeks earlier, 18-year-old local Josh Park-Fing had been working at the Toowoomba Showground. Josh had been cleaning the site and collecting wheelie bins and chairs – a seemingly innocuous task. But as the young man rode around the grounds where the show is held, something went wrong. A tractor pulling the flatbed trailer on which Josh perched reportedly slipped a gear. Apparently jolted by the change in momentum, the teenager fell from the trailer and was killed.   

Hailing from Meringandan, Josh’s death left the small community in a state of shock and mourning, with a funeral held on Friday.

The nature of the work he was doing also ensured the story reached far further, eventually drawing Kearney to visit, and eliciting expressions of sympathy from a government Minister, the opposition, and the Greens.

Josh had been working as part of the Federal government’s work for the dole program.
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On the very same day the young man was killed – in a grim coincidence – a group of unionists, social workers, activists and unemployed workers met in Melbourne. The conference was organised by the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, and heard testimony from people placed in Work for the Dole programs about the absence of proper safety measures on their sites. Little did they know that at the moment they were discussing these problems, the program claimed what may be its first fatality.

In the wake of the accident, Josh’s family have kept a low profile and requested privacy. They did not take part in the weekend’s May Day procession.

But their son’s death has drawn attention to a disparity which the ACTU is now describing as a form of discrimination.

People like Josh may be effectively exchanging their labour for payment but, as the Department of Employment is keen to emphasise, they are not considered paid workers. In spite of performing what are called “work-like” activities, and facing the kind of repercussions a regular employee might face if they fail to perform their tasks (i.e. non-payment) they do not enjoy the same rights.

It’s a legal distinction that endures even after death.

According to the Department of Employment, those on Work for the Dole sites generally do not qualify for state and territory Workers’ Compensation schemes. As a result, the Department has its own insurance scheme, one which the ACTU claims is far less generous than the entitlements open to regular workers.

In a statement, the ACTU told New Matilda that dependents of a worker killed at work could be entitled to up to $500,000, depending on circumstances. Under the Department of Employment’s insurance scheme, the maximum payment is just half of that, coming in at $250,000.   

A spokesperson for the Department confirmed the $250,000 cap, but said their insurance policies were comparable with those available to volunteers. “The Department’s insurance policies are not workers’ compensation policies,” they said.

In the Union’s view, the discrepancy in entitlements is indicative of a bigger problem.

“Our key concern is that the government is supporting and indeed promoting two levels of workers in this country,” Kearney told New Matilda.

If you think of Work for the Dole workers as the same as someone with a regular employer, that’s obviously true, and their situation starts to look like a double insult. Why shouldn’t someone forced to work for their income be entitled to earn the minimum wage, for example. And then there’s the question of compensation.

“The compensation regimes are discriminatory and create a situation where one set of workers are more valued – from a compensation perspective – than another,” Kearney said. “Every Australian worker should be treated equally.”

The Department denies the claim of discrimination, again on the basis that people placed in Work for the Dole are not classified as paid workers.

Labor’s shadow Employment Minister Brendan O’Connor said he had been briefed on the death of Park-Fing, but that it was too soon to comment on the specific details.

Greens’ spokesperson Rachel Siewert said it was not appropriate for Work for the Dole participants to be offered lower levels of compensation.

“I’m not a fan of the Work for the Dole program to begin with, but from what I’ve seen reported, and conversations we’ve been following up, it doesn’t seem like there was any safety processes in place,” she said. “It leads me to question then, is this common across Work for the Dole programs?”   

Work for the Dole programs are putting workers' safety at risk, says the AUWU

Date
    April 25, 2016
    Sydney Morning Herald

The national Work for the Dole program is facing criticism for failing to protect the safety of volunteer workers and not helping many find work suited to their skills.   

Australian Unemployed Workers' Union president Owen Bennett is urging the abolition of the Work for the Dole scheme and has launched a petition on Change.Org raising safety concerns.

The campaign follows the death last week of 18-year-old Josh Park-Fing, who fell from a trailer towed by a tractor while he was on the Work for the Dole program in Toowoomba.


Mick Smart, 30, of Newcastle, who fell down a retaining wall and injured his back while working on a Work for the Dole program.

Mr Bennett said his organisation has received a number of reports of cases where the safety of workers in the program has been threatened. He said workers with chronic injuries had been forced to engage in strenuous work to avoid losing their Centrelink benefits.   


Mick Smart, 30, of Newcastle, said he was expected to dig holes and push heavy wheelbarrows in February as a volunteer for a charity group, despite having problems with his back. He was assigned compulsory Work for the Dole after being for unemployed three years.

"I fell down a retaining wall and twisted my back pushing a wheelbarrow," he said.   

"I've been told I have no access to WorkCover because technically I was not working: I was a Centrelink volunteer."

Mr Bennett said the government had failed to ensure adequate safety measures for people taking part in the Work for the Dole program.   

"It is clear that the Coalition government can no longer guarantee the safety of workers at Work for the Dole sites."

He alleges unemployed workers have been threatened with the loss of unemployment benefits if they raise concerns about the safety of their Work for the Dole site.

"Work for the Dole is dangerous," he said. "It is a billion-dollar forced-labour program which does not help people into work. It must be abolished immediately."

ACTU president Ged Kearney said Mr Park-Fing's death should be fully investigated.

"The death of any worker, on any type of work site, is a tragedy and completely unacceptable," she said.

"As with any incident of this nature, a full investigation into the death of Mr Park-Fing is necessary. And given widespread concerns with the Work for the Dole, it must be done in context of the whole program, which the ACTU believes is deeply flawed on many levels."

A former employment services officer told Fairfax Media he had been pressured to place a woman with a back injury into a voluntary aged-care job under the Work for The Dole scheme.

"I experienced significant pressure to place a client of mine, who was clearly suited to certain industries around education who also had physical limitations, into aged-care voluntary roles," he said.

The former officer said the woman would have been better suited to a role as a volunteer in an education program for Indigenous people.

"It was about filling placements and meeting targets and not what was best for the individual to rebuild their career," he said.

He said a number of refugees were placed in cleaning jobs regardless of their qualification level.

A Work for the Dole supervisor in the NSW Hunter region told Fairfax Media that job providers were often inflexible and "like robots" in dealing with people with mental health and other social problems, including homelessness.

"The providers get a pool of money from the government and they don't seem to extend themselves to these people," the supervisor said.

"It is all about filling quotas."   

Australian Greens spokeswoman on community services Senator Rachel Siewert also raised concerns.

"It does bring into question whether the Work for the Dole measure is providing adequate occupational health and safety for those forced to participate," she said.

A spokeswoman for Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said Mr Park-Fing's death was "a tragic event that should not happen in any Australian workplace".

"The government extends is deepest sympathies to the family and colleagues of the young man.

"The matter is currently being investigated by the relevant authorities and the government will take whatever action is necessary to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained."

wonderful program.
you cant bake a cake without breaking a few eggs.

it should involve mandatory 1 hour gym sessions before and after the days effort to solidify the gains.

in the minivan on the way to the job site, they should play "drivetime CD's" featuring Tony Robbins and Steven Covey, talking about "gratitude meditations"

Smiling should be mandatory with perhaps a $1 fine for any workers without a cheerful attitude.

At lunch time, local small business people can come and give lectures and mentor to the group.

At the completion of the program, the workers can band together to buy a big bunch of flowers to send to their local liberal MP as a way of thanking him for this life saving and life changing program

Quote:



it would have been better to put it on the bathroom mirror to help you with your morning affirmations.

what could inspire someone more then the thought that one day they could take on the journey to greatness that is the rightard way of life.

take it out of the bin, sticky tape it to the bathroom mirror and start constructing an awesome life.

improve, improve, improve.

next week, have the ceremonial burning of your union card and after burning it, pee on it and go back to your awesome life construction project

aquascoot wrote on May 5^th, 2016 at 7:19am:



thats too much like commonsense the greens dont do COMMONSENSE aqua...


keave them with their heads in the sand......and waving their BLAME FLAGS its all they have to wind up people to vote for the,

greggerypeccary wrote on May 5^th, 2016 at 7:34am:


And drag everyone down to your level a  num nuts!