DES Provider Defies Department Guidelines, Breaches Participant
Job agencies continue to bully the unemployed for profit with full approval from the Albanese Labor government
Yesterday, AUWU’s Canberra branch picketed The Personnel Group in Queanbeyan, after a participant in Disability Employment Services, a fellow branch member, was denied her right to phone appointments.
The Department of Social Services Guidelines on Contacts states clearly: “The Provider is to contact participants via their preferred Contacts method”. The contact methods listed in the guidelines for participants to choose include “face-to-face, by telephone, or by video conference”.
Despite this clear edict from the Department, The Personnel Group chose to ignore this and mandated a face-to-face appointment for our branch member.
The Canberra branch decided to accompany the branch member to her next appointment, organising a picket outside the agency. We informed The Personnel Group in advance that we would be doing so.
At 10 AM on the morning of her appointment, the Personnel Group was suddenly very happy to switch the face-to-face appointment to a phone appointment, advising that nobody would be in the office that day.
We rocked up to the office regardless, to hand out education material, making sure to leave some articles of social security legislation behind for the Personnel Group staff to familiarise themselves with.
AUWU Canberra branch members picketing in front of a locked Personnel Group holding “Abolish Mutual Obligations” signs and wearing AUWU t-shirts and membership pins.
Locked door to Personnel Group Queanbeyan, with various portions of official government guidelines on DES participant choice stuck onto it, along with AUWU’s factsheet on “Demanding Safe Alternatives to Face-to-Face Activities”
In-person appointments are dangerous during a deadly pandemic wave
With the COVID pandemic still very much ongoing, it is dangerous to have unnecessary in-person appointments not just for the unemployed participants, who often fall into one or more risk categories, but also dangerous for the employees of the DES and JSP providers.
Our branch member had found her previous consultant at the Personnel Group helpful, saying that they better understood what it was like being unemployed. With this consultant, a job plan was signed, codifying an agreeable number of job search activities, and her preferred contact method of phone appointments.
Personnel Group consultant fails to call branch member; penalises her
In late November, however, our branch member was contacted by a new consultant advising her that the previously helpful worker was no longer with the Personnel Group. Rather than respecting her concerns and preferences, this new consultant started mandating face-to-face appointments. When our branch member contacted this new consultant to assert her participant rights and to ask for an explanation, her messages were ignored, and no explanation was forthcoming. She doesn’t want this to happen to her, or to anyone else.
In mid-December, when logging on to record her job search activity under her recently signed job plan, she discovered that the job plan (which she had previously seen activated in her app portal) had been deleted without her consent. She noted that these sudden changes had left her feeling unheard and upset.
To add injury to insult, after telling her she would have a phone appointment yesterday, the Personnel Group refused to call her; instead, they sent a text falsely claiming she had missed the appointment and her payment may go on hold.
After contacting the headquarters of the Personnel Group to inquire what was happening, she was told that the agency would address the issue shortly. Towards the end of the day, after receiving no communication from the Personnel Group and the breach still in place, she made two calls to the Department of Social Services (DSS). The Department refused to do anything about it and instead instructed our branch member to call the Personnel Group again.
Thankfully, this second call was successful and our branch member’s consultant removed the breach. The consultant claimed she had called our branch member at the scheduled time; however, there are several witnesses who can attest to the fact that no such phone call was made. Our branch member reached out to her phone provider, who confirmed there were no network issues in the area at or around the time of the appointment.
Personnel Group brazenly defies Department guidelines
When asked if the consultant knew about the Department's guidelines around contacting job seekers, the consultant responded “I don’t need to know the guidelines” and that she "couldn’t possibly familiarise herself with all the guidelines."
Now that she knew about the contact guidelines, the consultant was asked if she would act in accordance with them, the consultant refused, instead offering a supposed Personnel Group ‘policy’ that, in order to access the basic right of preferred contact method, our branch member would have to obtain a medical certificate. This is not in line with the Department’s guidance on DES contact preferences.
When asked to put these instructions and decisions in writing, the Personnel Group consultant flatly refused and said to contact the site manager instead.
The consultant then booked yet another face-to-face appointment, against the express and repeated wish of our branch member to have a phone appointment.
The Government and DSS refuse to care about provider misconduct
Job agencies have shown little respect for the guidelines (binding under Social Security legislation) as they have currently faced little to no consequences from a Department unwilling to enforce them. Despite calls to both the Department’s Complaints Referral and Resolution Service and the National Customer Service Line, nobody at either government hotline did a single thing to hold the Provider accountable, remove the impending payment breach, or even to enforce our branch member’s right to a phone appointment.
This flagrant provider misconduct has occurred despite Labor government Minister Amanda Rishworth stating in an August press release, following a review of DES providers that “the assessment ensures only the most effective DES providers continue to receive Commonwealth funding and have the opportunity to support participants to find and keep a job.”
Sadly, this is the system working as intended, empowering private agencies to bully the unemployed for profit.
Media contacts
Jules Kelly and Daniel Levy
AUWU Canberra Branch Coordinators
canberra@auwu.org.au