Jobactive workers speak out: 'How the hell did I end up doing this to these people?'

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 05:56:33 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/24/jobactive-workers-speak-out-how-the-hell-did-i-end-up-doing-this-to-these-people>

"About 400,000 unemployed Australians are obliged to engage with
Jobactive, the government’s main employment services program, in order
to keep their social security payment.

Since the late 1990s, Australia has paid private companies and
non-profits to run the 1,800 job centres around the country. They are
tasked with getting people into work.

In February this year the Jobactive network was the subject of a Senate
inquiry which heard from those who work within the system about the high
turnover of staff, impossible caseloads, low levels of training,
mistreatment by consultants and a lack of engagement from employers.

Here, three people who have worked for Jobactive providers speak about
the failings in the system. They have all chosen to remain anonymous
because they fear for their jobs."

This is what so-called “compassionate conservatism” is really about:
exploiting the most vulnerable members of society for profit, ignoring
the cost to those people and to the economy.

Cheers,
        *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net                   Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/             Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/                Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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Wed, 30 Oct 2019 12:24:16 +1100

"The Colective" <colective [at] glasswings.com.au>

The Colective
xanni sed:
<https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/24/jobactive-workers-speak-out-how-the-hell-did-i-end-up-doing-this-to-these-people>


"About 400,000 unemployed Australians are obliged to engage with
Jobactive, the government’s main employment services program, in order
to keep their social security payment.


As someone who has been and is currently on this treadmill, i can tell you
the system is kinda pointless. each time they make it harder and harder. i
think they are hoping that all the hoops they make you jump through will
discourage people.

the jobactive providers are non-providers. because i was full time carer
for the past 5 years, i haven't worked for those 5 years. instead of a
human being actually looking at my circumstances and maybe helping with
upskilling or re-skilling, they point you at a computer and have you
profiled by a robot, then show you the job active website, tell you "this
is where you record your job search efforts, now go pound sand.. see you
in three months".

the documentation they make you sign off on both from centrelink and the
jobactive providers both talk about negotiating a job plan. there is NO
NEGOTIATION! "agree to this or don't get any support." is the reality :(

peace,
rabbit.

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