Private employment agencies across Queensland have given jobseekers the impression they still need to perform their mutual obligations, despite there being a pause across large swaths of the state while it prepares for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The mutual obligations scheme forces jobseekers to complete tasks such as applying for jobs or attending training, or risk their payments being stopped.
The Department of Employment and Workforce Relations pre-emptively paused MOs from Tuesday 4 March until Thursday 13 March for jobseekers in Sunshine Coast, Somerset, Wivenhoe, Gold Coast, Darling Downs, Brisbane South East and parts of New South Wales.
Disability employment provider, Help, which has 47 offices around Queensland – with many in or near the paused locations – sent an email to clients on Wednesday informing them they were still having to undergo phone appointments.
The email, seen by Guardian Australia, says face-to-face appointments will be moved to over the phone.
“Our offices will be closed, but telephone appointments will continue as normal,” it reads.
“Any scheduled in-person appointments will be rescheduled or changed to phone appointments. Your consultant will be in touch with further details.”
After Guardian Australia contacted Help, it’s chief operations officer, David Avery, said: “Help is not enforcing any Mutual Obligations, nor will there be any compliance action taken for those wishing to cancel appointments.
“Help is not conducting mutual obligation appointments; voluntary appointments are available for those who wish to continue their servicing remotely,” he said.
“Our work involves supporting our clients through hardship and helping to build the confidence of people with disability. We will be contacting our clients again to reaffirm that our services are voluntary.”
One jobseeker, who received the email and did not want to be named, said she did not know there was a suspension to MOs in place until she went on social media.
“They completely omitted the fact that there is an exemption in place,” she said. “Anyone in the system who has dealt with [job providers] would regard that as a mandatory requirement because that is how every mandatory requirement is presented to them.
“The [job providers] are aware that they hold all the power over participants, and they use it to coerce people into extra appointments, useless courses or volunteer busywork so they can make more money.”
Jay Coonan, researcher at Antipoverty Centre, said they had also given assistance to someone else in Brisbane who said they had been told they needed to attend an in-person meeting – despite the pause.
“This isn’t a one-off issue, it’s a systemic issue,” Coonan said. “They are told at the top level of the business and information is provided to individual case workers through their IT portals.”
On Thursday morning Help sent a follow-up email to the jobseekers on their books, clarifying the appointments were voluntary. It would not say how many phone appointments went ahead before the second email was sent.
The confusion over the pause comes as three reviews and an ombudsman investigation have been launched into the controversial system and if it is being used legally by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), which runs it.
Coonan said providers being unclear with jobseekers during cyclone preparation was “truly astounding”.
“The question of whether or not “mutual” obligations are even legal is bad enough as it is,” he said.
On Monday the Antipoverty Centre sent a letter to the federal employment minister, Murray Watt, to pause mutual obligation while the reviews take place.
In response, a spokesperson for DEWR said no participant’s payment will be affected if they do not attend appointments with providers or meet other requirements that would usually apply.
“The department has communicated the pause to providers through direct messages to impacted participants and through the providers’ IT system, via the department’s Provider Portal, updates to the Workforce Australia website, in support resources for our National Customer Service Line, and with social media posts. Services Australia is also communicating the pause.”
Department of Social Services, which operates disability support service, did not reply before the deadline.
Read more of Guardian Australia’s Tropical Cyclone Alfred coverage:
