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Post by spaceyone on Aug 11, 2011 9:58:03 GMT 7
I received a letter from DEEWR yesterday, from the National Business Manager. He does not state his name. Even though I have sent a copy of the documents on which my signature has been forged to DEEWR, the Ombudsman and the Privacy Commissioner, it seems that is not enough evidence to create an investigation into same. If I want an investigation, and they assure me that they frown upon matters of forgery by their staff and asssociated agencies, I have to first provide a motive for it having been done. I got this same attitude from the Ombudsman's department. Not only do I have to outline On-Q HR's motive for forging forms to keep me on their program, after I had tried to resign in writing, I also have to nominate what benefits they could have gotten from doing so. Ummmmm, $1,500 every three months to claim that they were assisting me into the workforce is a pretty clear motive and benefit. You would think that DEEWR would realise that. Plus another $1,500 - $3,000 each time I found myself a new job. There was three of those during my 12 months on their program. According to same letter, my disability employment service did more work in assisting with my DSP application than they would normally give to anyone else. Anyone who has followed my story knows that On-Q HR took my DSP application forms off me and would not give them back for three months. They refused to return phone calls from me trying to request them. I was evicted from my home during the period they were withholding the forms, knowing that I needed to be on a higher payment to maintain my rental property, when I was too sick to work and was on yet another 3 month medical exemption. I took another cleaning job, to get myself and two children out of the crisis accommodation On-Q HR had suggested I let us go into, 'to receive lots of help'. I lasted at the job for a mere 3 weeks before having to phone in sick and was immediately fired. I also had slipped two discs in my back at that job and all of the muscles in my neck and sholders collapsed in the weeks following. I demanded my DSP forms back from ON-Q HR, only to find that my consultant had lost two parts of it, the one containing all my personal details and the one detailing my income and assets. They only returned the TDR. Once I had obtained, completed and lodged a new set of forms, On-Q HR interferred with Centrelink's booking of a JCA interview. One was eventually made, unfortunately for me it was with a company which had just entered into a business arrangment with my disability employment service. My On-Q HR consultant then tried to obtain a report from my Osteopath. When it came back stating that I had RSI in both shoulder muscles, along with other severe muscle strain, he failed to give it to the JCA assessor. Instead, he phoned me 3 hours before my JCA interview and told me that my application for DSP had been turned down because 'I had no evidence of illness'. He phoned me the next morning, laughing at me that I now had to sign up for Newstart and stay on their books. I refused. My sole parent pension had ended the day before, and I said I would merely have my children apply to be paid at an independant rate as I would not have any income to support them. I refused to sign up for Newstart, and be again subject to work for welfare laws, as the last job had done permanent damage to my failing body. Centrelink refused to let my children be paid that way, and I had to go three weeks without any income, before I had to cave in and sign up for Newstart. DEEWR describes this as a job well done by ON-Q HR. They also claim that it was all legal according to their rules and proceedures. I would suggest that anyone who is on the books of a disability employment agency, does not involve same company in any application for DSP. In fact, I would not even let them know that you are doing so at all. Here is a link to my facebook page, dislaying the evidence that DEEWR and other regulatory bodies refuse to 'see'. Yet anyone who has looked at the page, has commented to me that it was pretty awful what this agency did to me. So the common person can see the corruption and dishonesty in those pages, yet those who work with this stuff every day cannot see any problem. www.facebook.com/pages/On-Q-Human-Resources-Corruption/156739494385423
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 16, 2011 21:35:26 GMT 7
I have checked the DEEWR Organisation Chart, and I just cannot see a National Business Manager mentioned at all. I also found a list of email addresses for upper management of DEEWR and again, can find no mention of a National Business Manager.
Seems to me that the letter I received from this person must be a fake, sent by Employment Services Feedback, who are supposed to monitor employment agencies. In their letter, they request that I keep my dealings with them.
So I emailed all of DEEWR upper management pointing out that I have this letter from their National Business Manager, and asking if one of them knows who he is and which office he works out of.
I have also written up my account describing the motives that might have driven On-Q HR to committ forgery, and the benefits they would have received by doing so and sent that to upper management as well, instead of to Employment Services Feedback.
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 16, 2011 21:46:49 GMT 7
I have achieved one thing with all of my complaints about the denials of my rights under the Freedom of Information Laws.
In the new literature relating to Disability Employment Services, they no longer state that you have the right to view your file/records at any time, simply by making a request for them.
Instead, they now say:
What happens to what I tell you?
We will collect information about you for the purpose of providing disability employment related services to you.
We will keep all information about you in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
If you ask, we will usually be able to show you the information we hold about you. If you have any concerns about the way in which information about you is being managed, you can discuss your concerns with us.
More information about the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) can be obtained from the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner's web site.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH. REFUSE TO SPEAK TO THESE PEOPLE UNTIL OUR RIGHTS UNDER FOI ARE RESTORED!
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 16, 2011 21:54:04 GMT 7
The new star rating system for disability employment services has been released. However, what is silly about the system, is that the same company can score really low in one region, and quite well in another. Obviously this has to do with management abilities. But, how can you choose a provider based on their reputation, when those reputations can vary greatly according to where the office is located? My DES somehow achieved a 3-star rating, but they have no competition here. However, their head office scored the lowest rating possible, 1 star out of 5. I see that my JCA company received low scores as well, all over the country. Very few places achieved the highest rating, while quite a few achieved the lowest. Most scores are mid range though, 2 - 4. Anyone being referred to one of these places, should check this list before being allocated, to avoid being sent to the crappiest one in your area. www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/Programs/DES/PerfFramework/Pages/DESStarRatings.aspx
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 16, 2011 22:28:08 GMT 7
Here's a 'heart-warming story', from the Disability Employment website, about a young intellectually disabled man who travels 5 hours to and from work each day, without fail.
He could get there quicker, but that would require changing buses more frequently than his mind could cope with.
He then works a 7 or 8 hour shift, doing gardening. If it rains, he doesn't get the day off, he is allowed to do cleaning inside instead.
Just another 13-hour day for Josh - A DES success story People with disabilities too often fight against the perception that they are less than competent. But many want to work and are just waiting for an employer to give them a chance. Charis Chang follows a determined employee who has earned his place in the workforce.
4.30am: Narrabeen
If you have never seen what 4.30am looks like just ask Josh Ieli. That’s what time this 21-year-old gets up every week day.
Generally he is the only soul seen walking in the dark, empty and bitterly cold streets.
When photographer Chris McKeen and I turn up to meet him, Josh is already waiting outside.
It takes him just 15 minutes to shower and dress before he is out the door each morning. “Just in time,” Josh says to us, smiling.
To him it is just the start of his usual 2 1/2 hour journey to Lane Cove where he works as part of Growing Care’s maintenance crew.
4.53am: Pittwater Rd bus stop
The quiet of early morning is broken by the noise of an occasional car and more jarringly, the rumble of a semi-trailer.
Above us the quarter moon appears to give us a wry smile. Josh is in own his own little world, he has his iPod on and is listening to heavy metal music. “It keeps me awake,” he explains.
On the way to the bus stop he points out the Narrabeen Sands Hotel where he used to wash dishes. “I would work until 2am and then go to school the next day, they put me in the school newsletter for that,” he tells me proudly.
“I have worked since I was 15 years old, my parents said it was important for me to start working early.”
4.55am: L90 bus to the city
There are only about eight other people on the bus and Josh heads straight for a seat at the back. We manage to catch an earlier service than his usual 5.15am bus.
Josh, who has an intellectual disability, could get to work quicker but this would involve catching three or four different buses, which would add too many variables to his routine.
He says he has never missed his bus to work, which is his first permanent position: “It is my favourite job so far, I enjoy the company of the people,” he says,``They are easy to get along with.’‘
5.30am: Wynyard Park
The bus fills up as we get closer to the city but it is still dark as we cross the Harbour Bridge. Like most of the other passengers Josh falls into a bleary-eyed reverie, ``daydreaming’’ he tells me when I ask him. I ask him whether the early starts bother him and he answers with the vehemence of a 21-year-old: ``My social life has gone down the drain, I hardly go out now on Friday nights,’’ he says shaking his head. ``The job always comes first,’’ he says. ``No job, no parties, no anything else. You have got to have something behind you to pay for things, if getting up early means I can have it, fair enough.’‘
5.40am: Margaret St bus stop
Josh walks through the underground passageway at Wynyard Station, stopping to pick up breakfast that he devours at the bus stop. His face lights up as he tells us that he recently got his P-plates. Although he already has a car he is saving for a new one. ``It’s all I think about, insurance, gas, rego.’’
6.29am: 285 bus to Lane Cove
Josh sees a friend on the bus and sits down for a chat.``He’s my mate, I always see him on the bus, every day,’’ he says. As we cross the Harbour Bridge again, this time in the opposite direction, we finally see our first glimpse of sunrise.
6:51am: Orion Rd, Lane Cove West
From the bus stop it’s a short walk to Josh’s workplace in the industrial precinct of Lane Cove. We arrive at 7am. There are five other guys standing around, smoking and talking. One has been here since 6.15am, after dropping off friends to work. Another has driven from Campbelltown to get here by 6.20am to beat the traffic. They chat about fishing and good naturedly tease Josh about being a star.
7.30am: Growing Care
The group grows until the boss arrives. ``We love Josh, he is a hard worker,’’ contracts supervisor David Carter says. Today the team will be doing garden maintenance. When it’s raining they do cleaning. Work finishes between 2.30pm and 3.30pm. Josh says the toughest part is learning new things.
The journey
Josh struggled to find full-time work after school but got help from Job Centre Australia Chatswood, who specialise in finding employment for people with a disability.
Workplace assessor Chelsea Chapman said they built self-esteem in clients, providing training, support, coaching on personal presentation and workplace etiquette. The organisation also visited workplaces, helped clients to learn their tasks and showed them how to get to work. A lot of time is spent matching clients to the right job. She said employees with disabilities generally took less time off work and tended to change positions less frequently, which resulted in well trained, loyal long-term employees.
I wonder how much he is paid for his efforts. I wonder if it is the award wage, or is he just being used as cheap labour? How many of our members would be able to work a full time job? I think we applied for DSP because we could not.
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Post by Banjo on Aug 17, 2011 7:26:20 GMT 7
So what happens if it gets too hard for him? Does he have to go through a long and intrusive assessment process with people saying stuff like "well if you could do it last week why cant you do it now?" while he struggles to deal with it?
Unfortunately people like Josh are often abused by employers, they are usually keen and hard working but people want to pay them less claiming they can't do the same job as a non-disabled worker.
One wonders if some of the money going to Job Centres might not be better spent organising a transport system for these people.
Do you have a link for that story spaceyone?
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 17, 2011 12:25:55 GMT 7
Link to this post on the Disability Employment Australia website: disabilityemployment.org.au/news/item/245/Original article in the North Shore Times: north-shore-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/just-another-13-hour-day/It is good that this person's self esteem is being boosted by working. It is good that he is financially independant from welfare. It is good that he is enjoying the social interaction. However, what happens to the able bodied people who could have been doing that job? Two examples come to mind. A friend of my son's had found a full time job, after a year of being unemployed after he finished high school. He really liked the job, at a factory making flat-packed kitchen cabinets. He was keen to work, and bought his first car while working there. The owner of the business was then convinced to hire a person with down-sydrome. Half of that person's wages is paid by the government. The employer was happy, and was considering hiring more staff at 50% of what he would have to pay a normal worker. My son's friend's hours started to be reduced. He was also concerned that there would be an accident. He stated that you had to be fully aware of what was going on around you, at all times, to avoid being knocked over or have a pallet of wood dropped onto you. The disabled person was the most at risk of being injured in that workplace. My son's friend was in an age group where there is no Newstart paid to those who were not working or studying. So the government is happy to pay the company to get the disabled kid off DSP, but had no regard for the kid who had been learning a trade, but who would then receive nothing from C/L once he was laid off to make way for the disabled one. Another lady had told me a story of a physically disabled person being employed on a cleaning crew which I had been a part of. She told me that the girl could not do her job properly, and that the other cleaners were having to go into the cabins after her and fix up everything that she had missed or done wrong. The company was happy with their new staff member, because she cost them half as much as their other employees. While the other staff had come to dislike the girl, for adding to their own workload. (Knowing what a bitchy crew they were - they would have made her working life hell.) Her DES consultant had gone to the caravan park one day, and watched her work, to see what she could and could not do. Didn't they notice that she was not able to do the job properly? Seems not. Especially since they would have been paid a bonus for getting her that job in the first place.
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Post by Banjo on Aug 17, 2011 12:38:52 GMT 7
Good points, will people be given jobs they are not able to do because of their disability?
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Post by Banker on Aug 17, 2011 12:56:49 GMT 7
They will be given jobs no matter what. Why, Because it will look good for the Government, Centrelink and the staff will get a pat on the head for getting them off DSP......Then the Govt can say look at what we have done we have got jobs for 50,000 people on DSP and this has saved the tax payer $XXXX In fact all they are doing is moving numbers and causing stress to people. Its all a load of B/S
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 17, 2011 15:53:39 GMT 7
Its all a load of B/S It sure is! I guess the people forced onto Newstart, by this new influx of disabled 'workers' into the employment scene, will then have that payment cut off for 'not looking hard enough for work', when they are unable to find jobs. You would think that these plans to force the disabled to work, would be being put on hold when the latest economic crisis has already caused people to be laid off, and the numbers of unemployed people again climbing. I went up to civilisation yesterday. I was stunned at how few people were in the shopping centre, and at lunch time. No wonder stores are having to close their doors.
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 17, 2011 16:01:59 GMT 7
Here's my reply from Employment Services Feedback, at DEEWR, about the scans of the forged paperwork, and examples of my real signature, I sent off to their bosses last night. I had also sent my description of the reasons why, and benefits to On-Q HR, of committing the crime.
Dear Spacey One
Thank you for your email of 16 August 2011.
We can advise that the information you have provided will be forwarded to the Department’s Investigation Branch for assessment. This process will involve the analysis of all relevant and available information to determine if the information supports your allegations of fraud. Please note that this matter is not under investigation at this point in time but is currently being assessed.
We ask that you do not send emails to individual officers of the Department, If you have additional information in support of your case please send directly to employmentservicesfeedback@deewr.gov.au.
Yours sincerely
Employment Services Feedback Team
Lol, I had already sent them the copies of the forgeries a few months ago. They didn't reply to me at the time. They didn't investigate it at the time. And now they are telling me that they are still not investigating it.
Yet didn't they assure me in their correspondence of a few days ago that they take matters of forgery quite seriously?
I guess what is being assessed, is the reasons and benefits of the act for On-Q HR, which I presented. If they are not classed as being good enough, I guess they will then dismiss the obvious - the two very different signatures.
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 24, 2011 8:57:27 GMT 7
1,000 jobs to be slashed from steel works in Port Kembla in NSW and Hastings in Victoria.
They said on the news last night, that this new recession could see 100,000 jobs lost.
Why is our government focussed on making the sick work, instead of foreseeing this recession, and making plans for that?
The only ones left in the workforce soon might be the disabled, with their wages subsidised by the government, while the healthy sit around on the dole queue.
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Post by Banjo on Aug 24, 2011 14:39:02 GMT 7
Why are the jobs being lost in this industry? Because the mining companies are allowed to sell the iron ore to countries like China who turn it into steel and we buy it back. What ever happened to import duties on things like this? OK some products we use aren't made in Australia (Like Scotch ;D) but other goods should be taxed to the hilt to encourage business to use Australian labour.
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Post by spaceyone on Aug 27, 2011 11:02:11 GMT 7
Indicator of Employment has FallenDEEWR’s Monthly Leading Indicator of Employment (Indicator) has fallen for the fourth consecutive month in August 2011, after three consecutive monthly increases previously. All four components subtracted from the growth rate of the Indicator. However, it is still too early to confirm a prospective slowing in employment growth, to a rate below its revised long-term trend of 2.0 per cent per annum, because the Indicator has fallen for fewer than six consecutive months. Cyclical employment has now fallen for the sixth consecutive month, confirming that the annualised growth rate of employment is already below its long-term trend. www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/LMI/LeadIndEmploy/Pages/LatestRelease.aspx
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Post by spaceyone on Sept 29, 2011 10:22:17 GMT 7
I have been thinking the past couple of days about how much these employment places are paid by the government to 'service' us 'bludgers'.
I am talking normal employment agencies here, and Newstart payments, not disability pension.
So, if they receive $1,500 for their first interview of a new client, that means they are paid just over what that person's Newstart allowance would have been for the next 6 weeks. Three dole cheques to the unemployed person, and the equivalent to the employment agency.
They are also then given $1,500, in advance, to cover the person for the next three months of interviews. So they are given another 3 dole cheques, just to have the unemployed person on their books.
Therefore, just one person signing up with an agency generates $3,000 for them. Again, slightly more than the client would be paid in Newstart payments over the next three months, for just one 30 minute interview.
After that, they are still being paid at half of what the client receives, during the 3 months of interviews. They don't often find work for their clients, just talk about what the client has been doing to find work.
No wonder these agencies are rorting the system. Can the government explain to me again how welfare payments are sending this country broke? Seems to me it is the payments given to the employment agencies, for achieving nothing, which are the real burdeon to the system.
They should make these places earn their money. Traditionally employment agencies were paid by the employer, once they had supplied a suitable candidate for a job. Even then, they were not paid until the person had stayed in same job for a couple of months.
Start making these places earn their money, and you will have a lot less people getting rich from 'welfare payments'.
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