Thursday, November 03, 2016



Why is WINZ making people sign unlawful employment contracts?

NewsHub has exposed the fact that WINZ is forcing beneficiaries to sign blatantly unlawful employment contracts with an Australian labour-hire company to get them off their books:

A Newshub investigation has revealed a major recruitment company is signing up beneficiaries to legally questionable employment contracts.

Global recruitment company Manpower Group is looking for temporary workers and Work and Income is helping to provide staff.

[...]

[O]ne of the clauses in Manpower's contract gives the company power to collect and pass on their workers' sexual preferences and practices, race, religious beliefs and political views.

[...]

However it's not just what was in the contract, but also what wasn't.

There was no detail of the hours, pay rate, work description, location or duration of the job.


This very obviously breaches section 23 of the Human Rights Act (which prohibits the collection of information in a manner which indicates a desire to discriminate) and section 65 of the Employment Relations Act. Its so blatant that you'd expect even the muppets at WINZ to recognise it. And yet they're standing over people, implicitly threatening to cut their benefit if they don't sign.

I think WINZ owes us some answers on why they're leaning on beneficiaries like this and helping a foreign company break the law. As for Manpower, they should be prosecuted.