[Australia] Job providers investigated for payslip demand tactics

In Australia, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has investigated job service providers who demand payslip information from jobseekers so the company can claim public money. However, it has yet to take action against them, The Guardian reports.

Earlier this month, during Senate estimates, department officials were questioned. The move follows an April investigation by Guardian Australia that revealed many job service providers were ‘hounding’ jobseekers for payslips.

The department reportedly stated that it had sent three general advisory notices to all job service providers in the past 18 months. With one sent only days after Guardian Australia’s investigation was published.

In order to receive Centrelink benefits, jobseekers must sign up with a private job provider. They can continue claiming if they secure work but earn below a certain threshold.

Providers are entitled to claim “outcome payments” from the government when a client on their books completes four, 12 and 26 weeks of employment, no matter how the client secured their job, using payslips as proof of the client’s employment. 

In 2022-23 such providers reportedly received $329m in outcome payments.

Jobseekers are not obliged to provide payslips to their job services provider yet testimony from jobseekers and former job agency staff exposed the extreme tactics companies in Australia’s privatised employment services network were using to get them.

According to The Guardian, the high-pressure methods included finding jobseekers on Facebook, repeatedly cold-calling their employers and threatening to suspend clients’ welfare payments using Centrelink’s compliance framework. In some cases, companies acted on this threat when former clients failed to give them the payslips.

In May, a department spokesperson reportedly told Guardian Australia that “providers must not threaten or apply payment suspensions or demerits under the Targeted Compliance Framework to compel participants to supply payslips or evidence of employment.”

On June 4 the spokesperson said, “The department can assure clients it will investigate claims and take action as appropriate.”

During estimates the previous day, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne asked the department what it had done to stop providers harassing people for their payslips.

Quyen Tran - assistant secretary of the funds and payments branch - reportedly said three advisory notices had been sent to job services providers in the past 18 months.

“[The notices] made very clear that providers are not to harass or bully participants into providing payslips,” Ms Tran said. “We have also been looking at ensuring, through program assurance activities, that providers are not inappropriately applying the targeted compliance framework to participants who are not providing payslips.”

When questioned about how many providers had been subject to compliance action, department officials claimed they were unaware of any that had been and took the question on notice.

Responding to a comment from the department’s deputy secretary Tania Rishniw that affected jobseekers should call the national complaints line if their provider was harassing them for payslips, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne said the line currently referred jobseekers back to the provider to sort the issue out.

“There’s one rule for income support recipients, and it seems to me there’s a completely other rule for these providers – and they’re multimillion-dollar companies in most cases,” Ms Allman-Payne said.

“Are you aware at the moment there are still job service providers that are completely disregarding the advice you’ve given them?”

Ms Rishniw said while the department was “absolutely looking at where providers are repeatedly asking clients for their payslips and taking direct action with those providers,” she was “not aware of any at the moment”.

She reportedly repeated that jobseekers being harassed for payslips should contact the complaints line, “We will take that seriously and act on it.”

Source: The Guardian

(Link and quotes via original reporting)

In Australia, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has investigated job service providers who demand payslip information from jobseekers so the company can claim public money. However, it has yet to take action against them, The Guardian reports.

Earlier this month, during Senate estimates, department officials were questioned. The move follows an April investigation by Guardian Australia that revealed many job service providers were ‘hounding’ jobseekers for payslips.

The department reportedly stated that it had sent three general advisory notices to all job service providers in the past 18 months. With one sent only days after Guardian Australia’s investigation was published.

In order to receive Centrelink benefits, jobseekers must sign up with a private job provider. They can continue claiming if they secure work but earn below a certain threshold.

Providers are entitled to claim “outcome payments” from the government when a client on their books completes four, 12 and 26 weeks of employment, no matter how the client secured their job, using payslips as proof of the client’s employment. 

In 2022-23 such providers reportedly received $329m in outcome payments.

Jobseekers are not obliged to provide payslips to their job services provider yet testimony from jobseekers and former job agency staff exposed the extreme tactics companies in Australia’s privatised employment services network were using to get them.

According to The Guardian, the high-pressure methods included finding jobseekers on Facebook, repeatedly cold-calling their employers and threatening to suspend clients’ welfare payments using Centrelink’s compliance framework. In some cases, companies acted on this threat when former clients failed to give them the payslips.

In May, a department spokesperson reportedly told Guardian Australia that “providers must not threaten or apply payment suspensions or demerits under the Targeted Compliance Framework to compel participants to supply payslips or evidence of employment.”

On June 4 the spokesperson said, “The department can assure clients it will investigate claims and take action as appropriate.”

During estimates the previous day, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne asked the department what it had done to stop providers harassing people for their payslips.

Quyen Tran - assistant secretary of the funds and payments branch - reportedly said three advisory notices had been sent to job services providers in the past 18 months.

“[The notices] made very clear that providers are not to harass or bully participants into providing payslips,” Ms Tran said. “We have also been looking at ensuring, through program assurance activities, that providers are not inappropriately applying the targeted compliance framework to participants who are not providing payslips.”

When questioned about how many providers had been subject to compliance action, department officials claimed they were unaware of any that had been and took the question on notice.

Responding to a comment from the department’s deputy secretary Tania Rishniw that affected jobseekers should call the national complaints line if their provider was harassing them for payslips, Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne said the line currently referred jobseekers back to the provider to sort the issue out.

“There’s one rule for income support recipients, and it seems to me there’s a completely other rule for these providers – and they’re multimillion-dollar companies in most cases,” Ms Allman-Payne said.

“Are you aware at the moment there are still job service providers that are completely disregarding the advice you’ve given them?”

Ms Rishniw said while the department was “absolutely looking at where providers are repeatedly asking clients for their payslips and taking direct action with those providers,” she was “not aware of any at the moment”.

She reportedly repeated that jobseekers being harassed for payslips should contact the complaints line, “We will take that seriously and act on it.”

Source: The Guardian

(Link and quotes via original reporting)