Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Agencies take fee, then desert jobless
By TOM ALLARD
Unscrupulous job agencies are pocketing thousands of dollars in
Government payments for taking on the long-term unemployed without ever
helping them find work.
Agencies are paid $1,500 to $3,000 for just registering a long-term
unemployed person, but the Herald has been told of many clients who have
been signed up, then given no further help. At the same time, new
figures show that job placements under the Federal Government's $1.1
billion scheme to help the long-term unemployed are well below those
achieved by Labor's Working Nation programs.
The Job Network, which replaced the CES, encourages firms to seek
profits by placing people in work. "Flex 3" payments are made upon
registration, again when a client has been in work for 13 weeks, then a
final payment at 26 weeks. All up, the firms can make as much as $9,200.
But widespread allegations have emerged that some Job Network agencies
are simply collecting the up-front payment. Particularly in cases of the
hard-bitten unemployed, they make a judgment that their costs are
unlikely to be recouped if they give them any further help.
One 49-year-old job seeker, an electrical engineer who had not worked
for two years, told the Herald he signed with an agency as a Flex 3
client but received virtually no help.
"They did a r�sum� for me but that was it," said the man, who asked to
be identified only as James. "There were no facilities to write a
covering letter, no computers, no fax, no photocopiers and no printers.
"There was no intensive assistance. They want to make a profit out of
us. The obvious thing is to reduce costs, otherwise there's no point
trying to make money out of being a Job Network provider." James left
the agency and went to JobFutures Waverley Works, where the project
manager, Ms Teressa Dona, confirmed some agencies were rorting the
system. "The services are simply not being provided," Ms Dona said.
"They are keeping the fee of up to $3,000 and not doing anything.
There's no quality control management from the Government." A British
House of Commons committee came to Australia to investigate the
potential virtues of the Jobs Network, but according to an account of
its discussions with Department of Employment bureaucrats: "There was
now some concern within Government that it did not know what was going
on in the system."
People aged 45 and over are a burgeoning class of unemployed who are
directly targeted by Flex 3. A Flinders University study shows 236,200
people aged 45 and over are unemployed, with an average two years out of
work - more than any other age group. Data on the success rate of each
private job agency is yet to be put on the Job Network computer as
promised, further hampering the long-term unemployed from getting proper
help. It is also difficult for a dissatisfied client to end their
relationship with a Flex 3 provider. The under-performance of the
intensive assistance scheme - which received 70 per cent of all Job
Network funding - has prompted an overhaul. In the new tender
round for Job Network contracts, to be revealed next month, the
Government will slash payments to agencies. The savings will be used to
expand work-for-the-dole to all unemployed.
The Minister for Employment Services, Mr Abbott, said he would make
changes to make Flex 3 "even better", including closer monitoring of
providers. Government figures show 60,000 of the 400,000 people referred
to Flex 3 so far have been placed in work, a success rate of 15 per
cent. While early days, that is less than all six programs that operated
under Labor's scheme, some of which had success rates of 50 per cent.
--
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