By Katina Curtis and Nick Bonyhady
Employer groups are sceptical about a new hotline to dob in job seekers who turn down offers of work, and critics have dubbed it “DobSeeker” and say it is wide open for abuse.
The government will establish the employer reporting line as part of stronger mutual obligations on recipients of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance when the welfare payments increase by $50 a fortnight in April.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston have announced a suite of stronger mutual obligations for unemployed people.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said her department would follow up on people dobbed in to the hotline to see if they had a valid reason for turning down work.
“You often hear, though, employers saying, ‘Joe applied for a job. He was qualified for the job ... and they said no’,” she said. “In the event that they do not have a valid reason, they will be breached for that.”
However, Charles Cameron, the chief executive of the Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association, which represents the labour hire sector that takes on many job seekers, said most businesses were unlikely to use the hotline.
“[Firms] don’t want to pass judgment without a proper analysis of why they weren’t willing to work, they’d rather focus on people who are willing to work and provide them with that opportunity,” he said.
Peter Strong, the head of small business lobby group COSBOA, said employers he spoke to were also unlikely to use it.
“The only time you’d use it was if someone was abusive or really upset you,” he said. “They actually feel for the unemployed – they get annoyed by them coming in all the time, it becomes a nuisance, but they feel for them.”
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said the prospect of being dobbed in could force people into any job offered at the lowest possible wage.
“The so-called DobSeeker provisions of the legislation will allow employers to report workers who turn down jobs to the department for investigation,” Ms O’Neil said. “This gives a huge amount of power to employers to coerce vulnerable people into jobs under threat of being cut off from payments.”
Greens social services spokeswoman Rachel Siewert said the idea of the hotline seemed “wide open for abuse” while Australian Council of Social Services head Cassandra Goldie said it introduced a system that “encourages a lack of trust”.
They pointed out there were already penalties for job seekers who didn’t take offered work.
Jenny Lambert, the acting chief executive of business lobby group the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the hotline should not be used to put additional punishments on people seeking work but could provide useful information to shape support and policy.
“It has always been built into mutual obligation requirements that people on JobSeeker are required to take job opportunities when they’re found. What [the government] has suggested may be worthwhile ... but it shouldn’t make it more punitive than it already is,” she said.
Mr Cameron agreed the hotline was not a harmful idea, saying it might be used where labour hire providers needed to fill essential jobs and that policy should not be swayed by worst-case scenario fears.