In their own words: Centrelink staff reveal contractor woes
Nov 12, 2018 11:56:29 GMT 7
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2018 11:56:29 GMT 7
In their own words: Centrelink staff reveal contractor woes
Talking points
85 per cent of staff surveyed said private call centre staff don't get the training they need.
87 per cent of staff surveyed said Centrelink clients wait longer because the private call centre staff can't resolve their issues.
85 per cent of staff report fixing issues that arise from the work of the private call centre employees.
Outsourced call centre workers are telling Centrelink customers incorrect information, transferring calls unnecessarily and making errors, according to a union survey of Human Services workers.
As more privatised call centres for Centrelink open around the country, the Community and Public Sector Union has published a report on the effects of privatisation at the agency, including results of a survey of nearly 1300 workers at the Department of Human Services.
The government has funded 2750 call centre jobs through private companies since 2017, as well as other contractors working in the compliance area.
Last month Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said a report from KPMG showed contractors performed as well as or better than full-time public servants on many measures. But the report itself, and any other findings, have been kept under wraps.
Human Services secretary Renée Leon told Senate estimates last month that the use of labour hire was necessary to keep up service standards due to the average staffing level cap.
The union opposes the use of contractors in the call centres, and has opposed the staffing level cap.
According to the survey, 85 per cent of respondents say private call providers are having a negative impact on service standards. They report the private call centre staff don't have the training they need, and clients are waiting longer to have their issues resolved because their issues can't always be fixed by the private contractors.
The report also found 85 per cent of Human Services staff surveyed said they had to fix issues that had been caused by the calls to private call centre staff.
The survey allowed staff to describe the effects of the private call centre workers, with staff detailing how their work was affected, including customers being aggressive or annoyed when they eventually spoke to a public servant.
"Customers often want more detailed information and these call centres cannot provide it so the customers are put through to normal DHS call centre staff and have to wait a long time anyway for their enquiries to be satisfactorily completed," one respondent said.
RELATED ARTICLE
Contractors to be face-to-face with Centrelink customers in new trial
"Often, they are even more annoyed once they get through for having to wait twice and speaking to two different people to get their answers which does not make our organisation look very good at all. The only difference is that it is making the numbers of unanswered calls and timeliness figures look a lot better, which isn't the real story at all."
Staff also describe customers being given incorrect information that leads to missed payments, or increased contact with the agency.
"They often advise customers that they will be able to access something – eg advance/urgent payment etc and handoff for customers to DHS staff only to be told not eligible. This has led to an increase in customer aggression/dissatisfaction," one respondent said.
"Private call centre staff are advising customers that they cannot ask for a review of a decision unless they provide additional evidence. This is blatantly incorrect and denying the customer their right to review a claim that was incorrectly allocated by a private call centre. This meant that a customer's claim took an extra five months to be completed," said another.
Human Services staff believe that while waiting times to get calls answered initially is going down, the number is skewed because customers must wait while their call is transferred - sometimes multiple times.
"Yes the customer's call may be answered quickly initially, but then they wait longer because they are transferred two or three times to speak to the right person," one respondent said.
Staff also said Centrelink clients are ending up with debts, or without payments, due to mistakes.
"A common occurrence to have to take over a case started by a contract worker who has provided misinformation and completed a customer’s income review incorrectly causing an incorrect debt outcome for the customers," a respondent said.
Staff also reported that more people were attending service centres and saying they had been advised to do so over the phone, even though their issue could have been dealt with over the phone.
The Community and Public Sector Union has signalled that the use of contractors at the department will be a major focus of its campaigning in the lead up to the next election.
"DHS workers know the inside story on why the services they provide to the community have declined under this government, with our survey providing damning statistics particularly on the use of labour hire and privately run call centres. Workers have seen the impact of massive job cuts and now they’re also seeing the flow-on impacts from farming work out to corporate interests focussed on profits not people," the union's deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said.
www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/in-their-own-words-centrelink-staff-reveal-contractor-woes-20181109-p50f5y.html
Talking points
85 per cent of staff surveyed said private call centre staff don't get the training they need.
87 per cent of staff surveyed said Centrelink clients wait longer because the private call centre staff can't resolve their issues.
85 per cent of staff report fixing issues that arise from the work of the private call centre employees.
Outsourced call centre workers are telling Centrelink customers incorrect information, transferring calls unnecessarily and making errors, according to a union survey of Human Services workers.
As more privatised call centres for Centrelink open around the country, the Community and Public Sector Union has published a report on the effects of privatisation at the agency, including results of a survey of nearly 1300 workers at the Department of Human Services.
The government has funded 2750 call centre jobs through private companies since 2017, as well as other contractors working in the compliance area.
Last month Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said a report from KPMG showed contractors performed as well as or better than full-time public servants on many measures. But the report itself, and any other findings, have been kept under wraps.
Human Services secretary Renée Leon told Senate estimates last month that the use of labour hire was necessary to keep up service standards due to the average staffing level cap.
The union opposes the use of contractors in the call centres, and has opposed the staffing level cap.
According to the survey, 85 per cent of respondents say private call providers are having a negative impact on service standards. They report the private call centre staff don't have the training they need, and clients are waiting longer to have their issues resolved because their issues can't always be fixed by the private contractors.
The report also found 85 per cent of Human Services staff surveyed said they had to fix issues that had been caused by the calls to private call centre staff.
The survey allowed staff to describe the effects of the private call centre workers, with staff detailing how their work was affected, including customers being aggressive or annoyed when they eventually spoke to a public servant.
"Customers often want more detailed information and these call centres cannot provide it so the customers are put through to normal DHS call centre staff and have to wait a long time anyway for their enquiries to be satisfactorily completed," one respondent said.
RELATED ARTICLE
Contractors to be face-to-face with Centrelink customers in new trial
"Often, they are even more annoyed once they get through for having to wait twice and speaking to two different people to get their answers which does not make our organisation look very good at all. The only difference is that it is making the numbers of unanswered calls and timeliness figures look a lot better, which isn't the real story at all."
Staff also describe customers being given incorrect information that leads to missed payments, or increased contact with the agency.
"They often advise customers that they will be able to access something – eg advance/urgent payment etc and handoff for customers to DHS staff only to be told not eligible. This has led to an increase in customer aggression/dissatisfaction," one respondent said.
"Private call centre staff are advising customers that they cannot ask for a review of a decision unless they provide additional evidence. This is blatantly incorrect and denying the customer their right to review a claim that was incorrectly allocated by a private call centre. This meant that a customer's claim took an extra five months to be completed," said another.
Human Services staff believe that while waiting times to get calls answered initially is going down, the number is skewed because customers must wait while their call is transferred - sometimes multiple times.
"Yes the customer's call may be answered quickly initially, but then they wait longer because they are transferred two or three times to speak to the right person," one respondent said.
Staff also said Centrelink clients are ending up with debts, or without payments, due to mistakes.
"A common occurrence to have to take over a case started by a contract worker who has provided misinformation and completed a customer’s income review incorrectly causing an incorrect debt outcome for the customers," a respondent said.
Staff also reported that more people were attending service centres and saying they had been advised to do so over the phone, even though their issue could have been dealt with over the phone.
The Community and Public Sector Union has signalled that the use of contractors at the department will be a major focus of its campaigning in the lead up to the next election.
"DHS workers know the inside story on why the services they provide to the community have declined under this government, with our survey providing damning statistics particularly on the use of labour hire and privately run call centres. Workers have seen the impact of massive job cuts and now they’re also seeing the flow-on impacts from farming work out to corporate interests focussed on profits not people," the union's deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said.
www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/in-their-own-words-centrelink-staff-reveal-contractor-woes-20181109-p50f5y.html
