Business Is Booming in the Unemployment Industry
Australia’s mean and punitive benefits system is a key tool for disciplining workers while amassing profits for private firms. The labor movement needs to join with the unemployed to overhaul it entirely.
A commuter looks at at Sydney Harbour as he stands on the platform at Circular Quay station on June 1, 2020 in Sydney, Australia.Mark Kolbe / Getty
Key industries across Australia are collapsing and 25 percent of the workforce is either unemployed or underemployed. More than 1.6 million Australians are receiving the JobSeeker (unemployment) allowance, the highest number ever recorded. Notoriously mean in its allowance, Scott Morrison was forced to double the amount in the early weeks of the crisis so as to avoid a total collapse in consumer demand, bringing it to just above the poverty line. He also temporarily suspended the regime of “mutual obligations” (including “work for the dole” and other tasks) imposed on the unemployed in order to qualify for payments.
As of June 9, these changes will begin to be phased out. Although the increased rate is set to stay until September, mutual obligations will resume, and all those on JobSeeker will be required to attend appointments with jobactive service providers, the privately owned and generally for-profit agencies that purport to help the unemployed to find jobs. This is “phase one” — phase two will force unemployed workers to apply for jobs that don’t exist. Phase three will reintroduce financial penalties. The $7.3 billion industry is set to kick straight back into gear, implementing its punitive measures with renewed gusto, as has been its modus operandi for the last three and half decades.
Penalties for All
In 2018–19, private providers imposed a staggering record 2.7 million financial penalties on unemployed workers — roughly four penalties per active jobseeker. According to analysis by Guardian Australia, three-quarters of these penalties were imposed when the jobseeker had done nothing wrong.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.