Democracy for CPSU, a caucus of delegates and rank-and-file members within the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has taken a position opposing Work for the Dole. The scheme, established in 1997, forces unemployed workers to perform unpaid labour under the guise of “mutual obligation.”
At its April meeting, the caucus overwhelmingly voted to oppose this “coercive” labour and endorsed an action organised by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) demanding the scheme’s abolition.
On 14 April, unemployed workers and supporters from other unions rallied in Melbourne outside the office of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), the government department that administers Centrelink and the JobActive system. AUWU chose this location because JobActive is the enforcement arm of policing unemployed workers. It mandates excessive job applications and creates competition that drives down wages and conditions.
Nyx, an unemployed worker and member of the AUWU, described their experience: “To receive our poverty-rate welfare payments, we have to subject ourselves to arbitrary control.” They explained that “the system exists to punish the poor for being poor, and to terrorise workers into being too scared to organise at work when they do land a job.”
For 52 years, the public Commonwealth Employment Services (CES) assisted those looking for work. But in 1998 the whole operation was privatised when the Howard government shut down the CES and got rid of its public service workforce. The new system was a patchwork of government contracts with private organisations — the widely hated Job Network Providers. Funded entirely by taxpayers, these companies make billions by enforcing highly punitive social security laws.
Nyx explained the reactionary role they play. “These companies force us to apply for an arbitrary number of jobs each fortnight, and go through absolutely useless ‘training’ programs. They dehumanise us as just another number, all so they can get a payout.” The result of this system pushes workers into accepting highly exploitative and unsafe jobs, such as the low-waged job that took the life of Josh Park-Fing in 2016. At just 18 years of age, Josh died from critical head injuries after falling from a flatbed trailer while doing unpaid work. Describing Work for the Dole, Nyx says, “the entire thing is an active and daily attack on the entire working class.”
Unemployed workers find life a daily struggle and are forced to make hellish choices, explained Nyx: “While we welfare recipients skip meals to hopefully afford rent and medication, the owners of corporations get rich off our suffering. For them, our misery means billions of dollars in government contracts – money that could be used for universal welfare, indexed at minimum wage, and even higher for those disabled or raising children.”
The AUWU appreciated the CPSU unionists’ solidarity. Alison Thorne, addressing the rally on behalf of the Democracy for CPSU caucus, argued that all work should be paid at a liveable wage. She explained, the caucus “believes that Work for the Dole is a punitive form of slave labour.”
Thorne stated that “workers, employed and unemployed, have common interests.” The caucus, she said, advocates “the importance of building solidarity among workers — employed, injured, unemployed and retired.” Speaking in the midst of the federal election campaign, she added, “Every worker is only one pay cheque away from being unemployed. And for public servants, the Dutton opposition is threatening mass job cuts to the public service. The Coalition has tweaked its policy to say this will be accomplished through a recruitment freeze and natural attrition. Make no mistake — this means that entry level frontline jobs — such as call centre workers — will be hit hardest, leading to longer wait times, which will harshly impact those applying for government payments.”
Rank-and-file members of the CPSU have a proud history of standing with unemployed workers. In 1979 unionists put bans on the Work Test, an early version of what grew into the mutual obligations regime today. They correctly characterised the Work Test as a system introduced to harass unemployed workers.
The AUWU has a perspective of creating a movement to end the rotten system by building the power of the working class and uniting all workers, both employed and unemployed. Brunhilda Olding, a member of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, also gave a solidarity greeting to the rally.
The CPSU has been campaigning to expose the problems of the Job Service Providers. The union says that the primary goal of the privatised system is to make a profit, a goal fed by the mutual obligation framework that underpins the entire system. That’s why the CPSU, along with a range of other unions and community groups, have been calling on the government to drop the privatised, failing employment services system and bring back the CES. Thorne told the rally that Democracy for CPSU supports a publicly owned CES. She called for unionised jobs paid at living wages for all. The rank-and-file caucus is building a fighting union to ensure there are no cuts to the public service, while ramping up the campaign to scrap the cruel Work for the Dole program.
The AUWU agrees with the demand that everyone be paid a living wage — no more skipping meals to survive! It calls for the abolition of privatised Job Service Providers. In their place, it advocates the creation of publicly owned, not-for-profit social centres for workers looking for work. It wants these to be run by and for the union movement, especially the unemployed who use the service. Its vision is for a job service based on mutual aid — not punishment. Bring it on!
