Politics Centrelink

Remove this Banner Ad

eddiesmith said:
Traffic control, plenty of work, anyone can do it and starts at $30 an hour.

If anyone on the dole thinks that's too hard then they're probably not serious about work.
Click to expand...
No it doesn't. It starts around $25 an hour for most companies, unless its they pay AWU award rates when its less. CFMEU members on a union site employed to do union work get up to $60 an hour but you have to know the right people and suck a lot of utensil to ever be in with a chance on those.

I did it for fifteen months. By law you must have a minimum 15 minute break every 2 hours. In that 15 months I did not have one 15 minute break. Yes on a lot of jobs you could swap around and sometimes have lunch with the boys, but the vast majority you were working from the time you arrive to the time you pack up, because you can't just piss off and leave a hole in the road unguarded. One 40 degree day we were on a job in Box Hill in a concrete canyon on a side street, in full sun. The boys dug up the footpath and a bit of the road, then they all walked off the job because it was a union site and it was 35 degrees. We stood there without relief and without a break for another few hours until someone was called back to put some plates over the holes and we could piss off.

Also you got paid from the job start time until the time you packed up, with a minimum of 4 hours. Most days you arrived at the yard at 5:30 to get a ute and everything you needed, to be onsite at 7:30. Driving for an hour to an hour and half in peak hour, and the same back to the yard when you were done. If there was any rain about you drove like a campaigner because the customer had the right to can the job at any time for weather, and if you weren't physically onsite before they canned it you did not get paid.

So the drill was, if you worked, you generally put in a minimum of 3 hours unpaid at the start and finish of a day. IF you worked.

Because you were casual - they would text you between 4pm and 5pm to let you know if you were required the following day. If you did not respond within 10 minutes you were dropped for someone else. And if the job was running late and your phone was in the ute (because you're not allowed to carry them) stiff s**t. And if you dare get sick or turn down work - all of a sudden you stop getting the texts, and eventually you are forced to quit because you cannot afford to be "employed" on zero pay any more.
And these days a lot of companies require you to supply all your own PPE rather than provide it.

Some really, really good weeks with overtime I cleared $1200. Most weeks I worked 2 or 3 or 4 days and got $250-$500. A lot of weeks I worked 0 days and got nothing.

So why did I quit such a lucrative, not hard, career when I was obviously serious about work? Because it's ******* dangerous. I quit eight weeks after being hit by a car for the third time. And that was a month after I witnessed my partner be inches from being mown down by a tram speeding through the site.

If you're doing it and doing it easy, then you're in with a good company and very lucky. But what did you live on in the two months between being taken on, and actually getting work?
 
Last edited:
yodellinhank said:
Good to hear you've got some work, hope it doesn't run out.

I'm curious about age discrimination, as to me it doesn't make a great deal of sense. The telly box was telling me today that over 20% of people have changed jobs in the last 5 years. The old idea of age discrimination seemed to be "yeah but they won't be around long term" but people aren't these days.

Do you think there is still that mindset purely against age? I would think there would be discrimination against the aged unemployed "well why don't they have a job at the moment?" type thing, but purely on age seems a bit backwards to me.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Age discrimination does not make sense, as there is a ton of skills and experience that older people can bring to any position they put their mind to, that younger people simply don't have. But it is there, and it is very real.

About 18 months ago I got a postcard from the Vic government saying that if I employed someone under 35 who had been affected by covid they would kick in a $20k wage subsidy. My JSP suggested I still go through the motions, but with that policy in effect there was zero chance of getting anything. You don't put your age on your resume any more, but one glance at the type and level of jobs I've done makes it obvious I'm not in my thirties any more.
 
Over The Post said:
No it doesn't. It starts around $25 an hour for most companies, unless its they pay AWU award rates when its less. CFMEU members on a union site employed to do union work get up to $60 an hour but you have to know the right people and suck a lot of utensil to ever be in with a chance on those.

I did it for fifteen months. By law you must have a minimum 15 minute break every 2 hours. In that 15 months I did not have one 15 minute break. Yes on a lot of jobs you could swap around and sometimes have lunch with the boys, but the vast majority you were working from the time you arrive to the time you pack up, because you can't just piss off and leave a hole in the road unguarded. One 40 degree day we were on a job in Box Hill in a concrete canyon on a side street, in full sun. The boys dug up the footpath and a bit of the road, then they all walked off the job because it was a union site and it was 35 degrees. We stood there without relief and without a break for another few hours until someone was called back to put some plates over the holes and we could piss off.

Also you got paid from the job start time until the time you packed up, with a minimum of 4 hours. Most days you arrived at the yard at 5:30 to get a ute and everything you needed, to be onsite at 7:30. Driving for an hour to an hour and half in peak hour, and the same back to the yard when you were done. If there was any rain about you drove like a campaigner because the customer had the right to can the job at any time for weather, and if you weren't physically onsite before they canned it you did not get paid.

So the drill was, if you worked, you generally put in a minimum of 3 hours unpaid at the start and finish of a day. IF you worked.

Because you were casual - they would text you between 4pm and 5pm to let you know if you were required the following day. If you did not respond within 10 minutes you were dropped for someone else. And if the job was running late and your phone was in the ute (because you're not allowed to carry them) stiff sh*t. And if you dare get sick or turn down work - all of a sudden you stop getting the texts, and eventually you are forced to quit because you cannot afford to be "employed" on zero pay any more.
And these days a lot of companies require you to supply all your own PPE rather than provide it.

Some really, really good weeks with overtime I cleared $1200. Most weeks I worked 2 or 3 or 4 days and got $250-$500. A lot of weeks I worked 0 days and got nothing.

So why did I quit such a lucrative, not hard, career when I was obviously serious about work? Because it's ******* dangerous. I quit eight weeks after being hit by a car for the third time. And that was a month after I witnessed my partner be inches from being mown down by a tram speeding through the site.

If you're doing it and doing it easy, then you're in with a good company and very lucky. But what did you live on in the two months between being taken on, and actually getting work?
Click to expand...

Thats fair enough, at least you did give it a crack. You’re better than a lot of people out of work who won’t try anything.

But sounds like a s**t company, yes we had to buy our own uniform, but they supply it now. I will add I’m not doing it anymore because I’ve got my dream job but it was a job to keep me going when I needed money. I was on a DSP so I managed my hours to keep my DSP, if I worked more than 60 hours in a fortnight I’d have to do some dodgy accounting to keep it down that fortnight then added them to the next fortnight. I always told Centrelink overall how many hours I worked, but not always in the right week.

I found the days we were ever actually on the road all day were very rare, most power jobs we were but they often were short jobs then move to the next. If they were bigger jobs we’d often end up closing the road. My favourite was working with the concrete mobs as they’d usually be pedestrian management with just actual traffic control required when they were pouring so it was 15-20 minutes every 2 hours or so And they were close to home so I’d go straight to the job in my own car.

A lot of days you didn’t get much if a break, but when it was a road closure it was hardly working hard! The phones depended on who you were working with, most team leaders used their phones so I had mine out as well. One day I was actually on the bat taking a phone call for another job 😂

Also not sure what your hours were like, but we often fudged them a bit, the power company guys wouldn’t want to admit they’d finished for the day so you’d knock off at 1 and be in the books till 3 or 4 occasionally!!!

No it’s not the most glamorous job and there were plenty of s**t days, but it is an easy job to get into with just 2 days training and anyone who can stand on their feet for a day can do it.

As for losing work, that sucks, if we didn’t respond in an appropriate time wed get a message asking us to accept our appointment for the next day, only time I ever lost work for not responding was because I deliberately ignored it until they took it off me and that took a few hours. Other good thing about the concrete jobs was they were usually booked up for the week with the same crew So on a Sunday or even occasionally on a Friday I’d get 5 days.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Over The Post said:
Thanks.

Age discrimination does not make sense, as there is a ton of skills and experience that older people can bring to any position they put their mind to, that younger people simply don't have. But it is there, and it is very real.

About 18 months ago I got a postcard from the Vic government saying that if I employed someone under 35 who had been affected by covid they would kick in a $20k wage subsidy. My JSP suggested I still go through the motions, but with that policy in effect there was zero chance of getting anything. You don't put your age on your resume any more, but one glance at the type and level of jobs I've done makes it obvious I'm not in my thirties any more.
Click to expand...
Age discrimination doesnt make sense but is rife, we had a govt band 1 stand up to meet his new workforce and happily announce to the 200+ staff in the room that if you are over 35, you wont be promoted or given training. He had to walk it back a bit when people arced up but in the next year no promotions or hiring of 35+ year olds. Place fell apart pretty quickly and last I heard had been outsourced and moved to Canberra costing at least five times what it used to and delivering stuff all except reports.

On SM-G570F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
I think the bar for the Disability Support Pension needs to be markedly lowered, and people on DSP encouraged (not forced) to work more if they can.

This utter lunacy of keeping people on Jobseeker, making an assessment that they CANNOT work full time yet not sick enough for DSP needs to cease. I don't care if someone who cannot sit or stand for fifteen minutes can theoretically retrain for a part-time job. They should be on DSP while working if they happen to get a job, not the unemployment benefit.

As someone who usually votes Labor, I am ashamed that the Labor Party ruined DSP.
 
Rob R said:
Age discrimination doesnt make sense but is rife, we had a govt band 1 stand up to meet his new workforce and happily announce to the 200+ staff in the room that if you are over 35, you wont be promoted or given training. He had to walk it back a bit when people arced up but in the next year no promotions or hiring of 35+ year olds. Place fell apart pretty quickly and last I heard had been outsourced and moved to Canberra costing at least five times what it used to and delivering stuff all except reports.

On SM-G570F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...

Age discrimination then effects gender equality but no one seems to notice that however they are quick to see a lack of women in senior roles despite mature aged women being the largest group of unemployed.
 
Rotayjay said:
I think the bar for the Disability Support Pension needs to be markedly lowered, and people on DSP encouraged (not forced) to work more if they can.

This utter lunacy of keeping people on Jobseeker, making an assessment that they CANNOT work full time yet not sick enough for DSP needs to cease. I don't care if someone who cannot sit or stand for fifteen minutes can theoretically retrain for a part-time job. They should be on DSP while working if they happen to get a job, not the unemployment benefit.

As someone who usually votes Labor, I am ashamed that the Labor Party ruined DSP.
Click to expand...

The problem with DSP was caused when Howard abolished sick allowance which forced many people onto DSP that otherwise should not be on DSP.
 
1 - Request transfer from agency located 11km away PURELY because of distance issues

2 - Transfer to company that has branches 4 and 5 km away

3 - Transferred to branch that's located 28 km away
UGH.jpg




And that's always been the greatest failure of these scum outfits - head never knows what the tail is doing
 
3 weeks into new job and they have thrown a brand new company vehicle, phone, ipad, credit card at me. What surprises will happen in week 4?

My advice is to lie on your CV and use your mates as references. Don't listen to Kram, don't settle for anything. Your dream job is only a bit of creative bullshit away.

They will kick me off jobseeker this week when I report. It's been fun!
 
Rob R said:
Age discrimination doesnt make sense but is rife, we had a govt band 1 stand up to meet his new workforce and happily announce to the 200+ staff in the room that if you are over 35, you wont be promoted or given training. He had to walk it back a bit when people arced up but in the next year no promotions or hiring of 35+ year olds. Place fell apart pretty quickly and last I heard had been outsourced and moved to Canberra costing at least five times what it used to and delivering stuff all except reports.

On SM-G570F using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...
Which explains one the big problems with govt departments, employment and promotion of idiots.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Over The Post said:
No it doesn't. It starts around $25 an hour for most companies, unless its they pay AWU award rates when its less. CFMEU members on a union site employed to do union work get up to $60 an hour but you have to know the right people and suck a lot of utensil to ever be in with a chance on those.

I did it for fifteen months. By law you must have a minimum 15 minute break every 2 hours. In that 15 months I did not have one 15 minute break. Yes on a lot of jobs you could swap around and sometimes have lunch with the boys, but the vast majority you were working from the time you arrive to the time you pack up, because you can't just piss off and leave a hole in the road unguarded. One 40 degree day we were on a job in Box Hill in a concrete canyon on a side street, in full sun. The boys dug up the footpath and a bit of the road, then they all walked off the job because it was a union site and it was 35 degrees. We stood there without relief and without a break for another few hours until someone was called back to put some plates over the holes and we could piss off.

Also you got paid from the job start time until the time you packed up, with a minimum of 4 hours. Most days you arrived at the yard at 5:30 to get a ute and everything you needed, to be onsite at 7:30. Driving for an hour to an hour and half in peak hour, and the same back to the yard when you were done. If there was any rain about you drove like a campaigner because the customer had the right to can the job at any time for weather, and if you weren't physically onsite before they canned it you did not get paid.

So the drill was, if you worked, you generally put in a minimum of 3 hours unpaid at the start and finish of a day. IF you worked.

Because you were casual - they would text you between 4pm and 5pm to let you know if you were required the following day. If you did not respond within 10 minutes you were dropped for someone else. And if the job was running late and your phone was in the ute (because you're not allowed to carry them) stiff sh*t. And if you dare get sick or turn down work - all of a sudden you stop getting the texts, and eventually you are forced to quit because you cannot afford to be "employed" on zero pay any more.
And these days a lot of companies require you to supply all your own PPE rather than provide it.

Some really, really good weeks with overtime I cleared $1200. Most weeks I worked 2 or 3 or 4 days and got $250-$500. A lot of weeks I worked 0 days and got nothing.

So why did I quit such a lucrative, not hard, career when I was obviously serious about work? Because it's ******* dangerous. I quit eight weeks after being hit by a car for the third time. And that was a month after I witnessed my partner be inches from being mown down by a tram speeding through the site.

If you're doing it and doing it easy, then you're in with a good company and very lucky. But what did you live on in the two months between being taken on, and actually getting work?
Click to expand...

They were building a freeway overpass pass near where i worked.
There was access to a construction zone in the middle of the divided road ( they stole some lanes with concrete barriers.

I couldn't help noticing one woman who's job seemed to solely consist of letting other vehicles in and out of the area, by unhitching a chain, standing until the car drove in, then hitching it again.
Was there for weeks and weeks. Looked like she'd have 2 or 3 vehicles an hours if that.
Got to admit i felt sorry for her in her hard hat and full length gloves ( nothing overhead, and like i said, a bit of chain ) on really hot days, but i guess she got the money for that.
 
Rotayjay said:
I think the bar for the Disability Support Pension needs to be markedly lowered, and people on DSP encouraged (not forced) to work more if they can.

This utter lunacy of keeping people on Jobseeker, making an assessment that they CANNOT work full time yet not sick enough for DSP needs to cease. I don't care if someone who cannot sit or stand for fifteen minutes can theoretically retrain for a part-time job. They should be on DSP while working if they happen to get a job, not the unemployment benefit.

As someone who usually votes Labor, I am ashamed that the Labor Party ruined DSP.
Click to expand...
Problem is everything has to be created for those of us on the DSP. We don't have to work or do anything but some of us choose to do so.
I study to keep my mind ticking over.
 
yodellinhank said:
Good to hear you've got some work, hope it doesn't run out.

I'm curious about age discrimination, as to me it doesn't make a great deal of sense. The telly box was telling me today that over 20% of people have changed jobs in the last 5 years. The old idea of age discrimination seemed to be "yeah but they won't be around long term" but people aren't these days.

Do you think there is still that mindset purely against age? I would think there would be discrimination against the aged unemployed "well why don't they have a job at the moment?" type thing, but purely on age seems a bit backwards to me.
Click to expand...
My mother is the other side of sixty, and she's in a fairly lucrative field with a lot of experience. But when she applies for work, she gets more replies when she leaves off her age/DOB from her resume. Whether she's currently employed or not doesn't affect the bias employers have against older people.

All employers discriminate against the unemployed, if only because unemployment makes people desperate, and the best way to get a job is to behave as though you don't need one, it would just be beneficial to all parties if they gave it to you.
 
Last edited:
$13.50 per FN increase in jobseeker on the 20th

al-bundy-thumbs-up.gif
 
Gethelred said:
My mother is the other side of sixty, and she's in a fairly lucrative field with a lot of experience. But when she applies for work, she gets more replies when she leaves off her age/DOB from her resume. Whether she's currently employed or not doesn't affect the bias employers have against older people.

All employers discriminate against the unemployed, if only because unemployment makes people desperate, and the best way to get a job is to behave as though you don't need one, it would just be beneficial to all parties if they gave it to you.
Click to expand...

I started a new job back in Vic a month ago (tomorrow is my official last day with BHP and WA). If for example I had applied for even an internal transfer with BHP, as a 53 year old male, I had zero chance of even getting an interview even though I would have been doing the role for 10 years. My application would have been looked at by a young female in HR in Perth and deleted.

With my now new job, I think I was lucky that the HR woman was Chinese. When speaking with her she said that age and experience were more highly regarded in China than Australia.
 
Herne Hill Hammer said:
With my now new job, I think I was lucky that the HR woman was Chinese. When speaking with her she said that age and experience were more highly regarded in China than Australia.
Click to expand...
That's a great thing about eastern cultures - placing a higher emphasis on elders.

It's not 'classic' Centrelink, but the favouritism of certain federal disaster payments is being administered through Centrelink.

www.abc.net.au

'I'm outraged': Liberal upper house MP to quit over federal flood funding

Only the flood-affected shires that fall in the National Party-held seat of Page have so far received additional disaster payments, something NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack says she "can't defend".
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

In a disgusting move, the government is changing the policy (allowing more payments per person) for local government areas in a Nationals-held seat, but not in the affected Labor-held seat. This should be entirely based on household or business need, not postcode.
 
Herne Hill Hammer said:
I started a new job back in Vic a month ago (tomorrow is my official last day with BHP and WA). If for example I had applied for even an internal transfer with BHP, as a 53 year old male, I had zero chance of even getting an interview even though I would have been doing the role for 10 years. My application would have been looked at by a young female in HR in Perth and deleted.

With my now new job, I think I was lucky that the HR woman was Chinese. When speaking with her she said that age and experience were more highly regarded in China than Australia.
Click to expand...

Where I work in a state government organisation, if they actually bring in their gender equality targets they’ll have to fire a lot of females and hire a few more males!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top