Job Agencies Told To Review Practices

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday January 28, 2008

Stephanie Peatling

THE companies used by the Federal Government as employment agencies have been asked to review their own work and come up with recommendations about more effective ways to find work for people.

As the unemployment rate drops there is concern from employment services and welfare groups that disadvantaged job seekers, such as people with disabilities, will be stuck in a cycle of short-term jobs.

The new Minister for Workforce Participation, Brendan O'Connor, has written to all the companies that make up the Job Network asking them about possible changes to the system that could be made by the Rudd Government.

A copy of the letter obtained by the Herald asks Job Network members to provide "suggestions" about how employment agencies can fit in with the new Government's skills and social inclusion policies.

In his letter, Mr O'Connor said he wanted to know whether disadvantaged job seekers were receiving enough support to help them find work, and adequate training to make sure they are able to take on sustainable work instead of being pushed from one casual job to another.

Job Network members are also being asked about their relationship with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Welfare groups and Job Network members have been critical of the close eye that the department keeps on employment agencies, arguing that too much time is spent on paperwork at the expense of helping people find work.

The group representing job agencies, the National Employment Services Association, has argued that many of the people who are unemployed remain without work because they have not had adequate training to be able to rejoin the workforce. Of particular concern are middle-aged and older men who may have been retrenched and out of work for some time, and now lack the necessary skills for work.

"Australian employment services operate in a 'work first' policy setting which emphasises the speed of placement of job seekers into work," the association argues in a paper on which it will base its submission to Mr O'Connor.

"While the work-first approach to employment services has its strengths, in the current climate of low unemployment it is considered that this emphasis limits employment services' potential contribution to skills shortages and broader workforce participation objectives."

Welfare groups would also like to see a change in attitude towards unemployed people.

The president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Michael Raper, has urged Mr O'Connor to change from a 'work first' attitude to a 'work ready' one. "People are work willing but they are not work ready," Mr Raper said.

The Department of Employment and Workforce Relations should no longer regulate employment agencies, but rather a new, independent body should be set up to take that role, Mr Raper said.

Having the department both award and police contracts was unworkable, Mr Raper said. "The Government must lift the heavy hand of bureaucracy that monitors job agencies every day," he said.

The Government has already promised to review the department's ferocious attitude towards welfare debts after a Herald investigation last year showed it was pursuing small amounts from often destitute people.

The new secretary of the department, Lisa Paul, will begin that review this week.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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