EMPLOYER groups have given a lukewarm response to Tony Abbott's plan to suspend unemployment benefits where unskilled work is available, calling for a greater focus on training and less on punitive measures.

Under the Coalition proposal, work for the dole would be mandatory for anyone under 50 who had been out of work for six months.  

Unemployed people would also have their dole payments suspended where unskilled work, such as fruit picking or cleaning, was available.

Australian Mines and Metals association boss Steve Knott told the Australian Online that while the concept of "getting people off the couch" was a good one, Mr Abbott's plan needed to focus more on skills.

"The government has had in place what's called a productivity placement program where they fund people to get job-ready for roles in the resources sector," he said.

"That's a good initiative. It's unclear to us how withholding benefits will facilitate people picking up skills necessary to become job-ready for our industry."



Victorian Fruit Growers association general manager John Wilson said the employment "crisis" in fruit picking was not as bad as people made out.

Employers in some areas, such as Swan Hill, struggled to find people to pick stone fruit crops but travellers made up for the worker shortfall in other regions.

"If we didn't have the backpacker workers we would have a shortage but they are supplementing our workforce," he said.

"There are jobs there for Australians if they want them, there is nothing stopping Australians applying for these jobs."


Comments on this story

   *
     JT of Bris Posted at 3:36 PM March 31, 2011

         Yep, even the business owners who the coalition claim to represent see this "plan" as populist nonsense. Still I'm sure all the 100K+ recipients of Howards middle class welfare will love it. Irony anyone?

   *
     les Posted at 3:29 PM March 31, 2011

         How about the industry gets the people "job "ready"

   *
     bob Posted at 2:11 PM March 31, 2011

         it is not just a matter of getting skills and tickets. just look in the job section and see how many employers requires 2 to 5 years experience. how do one get that when you cant get a start.    

Quote:



Or, perhaps Dan G should use Abbott`s example of hard work ethic, apply himself, and try to succeed in life.  A little bit of back bone doesn`t go astray in life.

He sacked them for pleading for water
March 13, 2010


The pickers know him only as Max, but their stories are remarkably consistent. ''Pick faster,'' he screams. ''Hurry, pickers. Work with two hands. Faster, workers, or you won't be paid.'   '

''You feel like a slave,'' says Martin Pflaamenger, 22, a German backpacker.

He was one of several fruitpickers sacked while picking tomatoes on a farm near Bundaberg on February 16. The reason? They had pleaded for water after hours in the intense Queensland sun. Mehmet ''Max'' Tosun sacked them on the spot.  


Only three months ago another German backpacker, Jessica Pera, 24, collapsed and died while working on a nearby farm. The coroner is investigating dehydration or heat exhaustion as possible causes of death. By all accounts to the Herald, that farm takes good care of workers. It insists they drink plenty of water.  

The same cannot be said for the way Tosun does business. He and his wife, Calie, are a formidable team in Bundaberg. He is 27, she 23. Since October they have been running East Bundy Backpackers - a source of labour for Max's other business. He is a labour hire contractor for farms, which need a constant supply of fruitpickers.

Tosun and his wife, known as ''Kelly'', have refused to answer the Herald's questions concerning allegations it has gathered from seven backpackers over three weeks. But when the local newspaper ran similar claims by other backpackers this week, Calie Tosun, formerly Unwin, was quoted as saying: "I've heard people complain about the work, but if they don't like it they can leave." Her husband disputed many of the claims, but said he had to yell to make pickers work. "They need to be told what to do.''

They have only days to get their ''house in order'', says Queensland's Workplace Rights Ombudsman, Don Brown. He will not discuss individual cases, but he is sending his team to Bundaberg to investigate the industry - yet again. ''We intend to name and shame, and to refer people for prosecution where required,'' Brown told the Herald.

The federal Fair Work Ombudsman has ''serious concerns'' and has begun a separate inquiry.

Bundaberg is familiar with this sort of controversy. The mayor, Lorraine Pyefinch, other hostel operators and farmers are tired of rogue operators. They have been working hard to clean up the industry's image. Adding to their sensitivity is the coming 10th anniversary of a tragedy in nearby Childers in which 15 died in a fire at the Palace Backpackers Hostel.

''This area is entirely dependent on seasonal workers, and particularly backpackers, for our agricultural and horticultural industry,'' Pyefinch says. ''It's the backbone of our economy … In Bundaberg alone, at any one time, there's a thousand registered beds. You can double or triple that in the peak picking season - and they're the unregistered ones.''

Many backpackers go there to fulfil a requirement for a second-year holiday working visa: 88 days of fruitpicking. But Daniel Stockwell, 27, from England, has gone home, broke, having lasted one day as a picker under Max Tosun.

''I love Australia,'' Stockwell says, ''but this just killed it.''

He was sacked on February 16 with his English friend Oliver Brown, 24, Martin Pflaamenger, another German and an Australian. They woke at 3am, but there was no room on the first bus so they caught the second at 5.30am. They were lured by $17.60 an hour. ''But when we got there we heard that had changed,'' Stockwell says. ''We'd be getting paid $1.80 per bucket … I'd been picking for an hour and I'd hardly got one bucket.''

They moved to another field. After 2½ hours they were ''gagging for water''. After three hours, Brown says, he had picked eight buckets of tomatoes. ''You can do the sums.'' Thus far: $14.40.

Workers are unable to carry their own water bottles while picking. They asked for water but none came. Some sat down, refusing to work. ''How can we work without water?'' Stockwell asked.  

Tosun bid them farewell. Back at the hostel they were given one hour to leave. Signs warned that only working fruitpickers could stay at the hostel. The group protested that they had paid $160 in advance for a week's accommodation. They said they called in the police, who told them it was a civil matter and they must leave. They left with no pay and no refund.  

Yesterday the owner of the farm, SP Exports, terminated its contract with Tosun. Its investigations had revealed ''considerable substance to the allegations'', said its managing director, Andrew Philip. ''We employ 300 and it is certainly not the way we treat them or how we expect people to be treated.''

A spokesman for the Fair Work Ombudsman said piece rates could only be paid if a worker received at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked, now $14.31.

John Walker, who runs the Bundaberg Workers and Divers Hostel, estimates the illegal industry in Bundaberg is at least twice as big as the legal one.

Are there fruit farms in Brisbane or Bankstown?

Would you pick a BIG bucket of tomatoes for $1.20? (not your normal plastic laundry bucket) I wouldn't.

Incidentally imcrook....a German backpacker died from dehydration at a tomato farm in or near the same town. $5 a day worth dying for nah!!!!!

BigOl64 wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 6:38am:



And so do a lot of those who unfairly malign the unemployed.

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 7:46am:



Wow, what a well thought out and sensible piece of "advice". NOT!   

ialwayspoor wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 8:23am:



Deary me, like the REAL world of a shop assistant?

PMSL
[/quote]


lol.   Gotta laugh at the thought that if the shallow end of the gene pool worked half as hard as Abbott has, they wouldn`t need to pick fruit either.  Could you imagine Abbott picking fruit?  With those ears, the farmer would mistake him for a flying fox and throw a net over him.

crook - Tony does not pick fruit for a living 'cause he is a rhodes scholar who has authored a novel.

ie, he got some smarts

Belgarion wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 9:23am:



Good point!

I seriously doubt, that Abbott could point to too many unemployed Aussies who have actually refused to do this fruit picking and mining sector/region work - since he would have to prove that they've been formally offered it in the first instance!

Moreover, where are all these Job Network organisations that are supposed to have unfilled fruit picking and mining region jobs on their books - and where have said been advertised and for how long!?

In short, where's the evidence that backs up Abbott's demonising rhetoric!?

PS Isn't it the case that these sorts of jobs are NOT being channelled through Job Network parasites in the first instance!?

BigOl64 wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 9:46am:


whinging are you again !! I hate whingers.

maybe Holden can give them a proper job building electric cars with the 200 million in corporate welfare it got off the tax payers to supposedly build a 'green' car but never did. Instead it just imported a petrol junk box from Korea and gave the Koreans jobs because they wanted to save the crappy fruit picking jobs for us aussies

Have a whinge about that areshole !!

Sprintcyclist wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 9:05am:


in other words a useless word smith who couldn't pick his nose let alone some fruit.

Sir lastnail wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 9:53am:


Yeh, that wasn't a whinge that was derisive commentary about what equitist wrote; what you write is a whinge, you can tell because it is the same sh1t repeated over and over again, without resolution or end.

Find something new to discuss, might be a bit of a challenge, but what the hell. 

What “stuttering Stanley” doesn’t quite understand is that most of these fruit picking jobs are seasonal and only last for a about 3 - 4 months, and the people have to usually pack up and move interstate to follow the fruit season.  The jobs are normally underpaid, hard physical work and the you are sometimes working in extreme environmental conditions.

What ‘stuttering Stanley” is proposing is that some Australians have to turn into be a “gypsy” society in having to follow fruit picking seasons in order to have a job in Australia.  Maybe he should have thought of this before he supported the sell-off of Australia’s private assets and businesses to foreign investors.

There is not much good going to come with supporting all businesses and manufacturing to be sent overseas and have no work left for Australians Mr. Abbott.

I would also like to see Mr Abbott and all the liberal Ministers spend 2 weeks out in the fields picking fruit, and then come back and see if they have the same idea.

We all know that won’t happen because it a case of, do as I say, not as I do.

Sir lastnail wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 10:11am:




He's got some strange ideas about the unemployed.

My favorite is the one where everyone on the dole went straight
onto the dole from school, and has been on the dole ever since.

In over 35 years since I left school, I've only ever known ONE BLOKE
who fits his (and and others') idea of a dole bludger.

ONE!

Must be fun to live in a world of generalities, prejudice and misinformation.

Quote:


Tony has a job are you suggesting he should get a second job?

If a fruit picker makes less money than someone on the dole as you claim then the solution would be to cut the dole to give these dole bludgers some incentive to work.

My relative was a supervisor with a work for the dole program in Canterbury on the first monday there were 37 people making frantic phone calls and by the end of the first week there were only 4 people left in the program as these bludgers suddenly found a real job.

Work for the dole is a great idea i wonder how much welfare fraud it reduces with those scum who claim the dole and work for cash in the hand.

The dole was never meant to be a lifestyle choice so if you dont like what you get given by the taxpayers every fortnight then get a Smacking job.

Quote:


Job Networks don't handle fruit picking jobs - they can't put you forward for one nor can you be made to apply for one. If you're unemployed you can reject the offer of a fruit picking job without any penalty from Centrelink.

Life_goes_on wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 2:22pm:



They don't at the moment, but I bet if Abbott got in he'd be sending the under 50's out to work in the brothels.

ialwayspoor wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 8:14am:


Excuse me, I believe the age group was UNDER 50`s.

Quote:


Are you asking for a shadow cabinet reshuffle?

I wonder how much fruit pickers get paid.  Now lets see, how long to fill a bin I wonder.   

Quote:


I was making a thousand a week doing it.

Maybe if you werent so bloody lazy and had a crack you might actually one - have a job, and two - a job that good money could be made.

Verge wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 10:23am:


More details please: when, where, doing what, for how long and under what conditions?

Also, how far from home and what type and cost of accommodation and transport?

Was the employment above board or cash in hand - and why?

Also, what was the demographic (including ethnicity and nationality) of your co-workers?

Be honest now...

Equitist wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 10:33am:

Thy - More details please: when, where, doing what, for how long and under what conditions

It was 5 years ago was my last stint, which I did each year for about 10 years.
Murray region.  Grape picking, tomato picking, potato farming.  Chuck in some grain harvest work as well.
Usually did it for six weeks a year, using annual leave and RDO's to go and do.
Conditions were fine, hot, but fine.  Bosses were all excellent.

Thy - Also, how far from home and what type and cost of accommodation and transport?

About 45 minutes from home.  Transport is whatever fuel was, car pooled however.

Thy - Was the employment above board or cash in hand - and why?

All was above board but one job.  The cash job also had the highest hourly rate as well.

Thy - Also, what was the demographic (including ethnicity and nationality) of your co-workers?

Plenty of wogs, younger people looking for leg ups before uni, just regular people.  Also plenty of semi reitred people pickup up some pocket money, as well as married women.

There is about 45 weeks a year worth of work around the region in these kinds of jobs, and what is better is most bosses look after the good staff.

I even decided to go back and look at my old records, and the worst year in the six week stints I had was $9grand.  I put in massive hours to get it, but if you get in when the work is there and get it done, you can relax when there is none.

Some people just dont want to work, or dont like the conditions like a bit of heat.  It made it better for me, more hours for me to take.

My sister went fruit picking for a few months in Queensland.

She came back to England without a cent to her name and in fact if I recall right my dad whacked about $4k in her bank account before she left too.

Seemed a good life but not sure it was a money tree!

Sir lastnail wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 12:12pm:


A bit of outdoor work never hurt anyone.

I find it interesting you think Kevin Rudd is a parasite.

Kat wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 12:15pm:



Age has nothing to do with it.

Skills and marketability give you the right to pick and choose jobs.

Between summers at university, I used to go to the USA and do any old job. Working in amusement parks, lifeguarding waterparks etc - all for about $8 per hour.

Since qualifying from university, I have cherry picked every job I have had.
Why? Because I have the skills that has earned me that right.

So I started choosing from 22 years of age.

The old fella who cuts my lawn is in his 60s he doesn't pick or choose anything.

It's supply and demand market economics mate. Age is irrelevant - unless of course you talk of experience. I am too young to be a CFO of a multi-national. Not because of age but experience.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 12:21pm:




Age has everything to do with it, as has experience.
I have a broad range of experience, and also have
qualifications, and I WILL cherry-pick in order to get
work where I can use those skills and experience.

One thing I will NOT do, is menial work, customer-service jobs,
or 'start at the bottom' jobs, I did all that 30+ years ago, now it
is MY RIGHT to CHOOSE my work.

There's usually no shortage of work for a computer-tech
or a house-painter. I do both. I also do volunteer work.

Or do you think that only those with uni quals should have
the right to choose their job?

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 12:21pm:


I thought you said that you were VP of one of the top 10 companies in the world ??

Top 10 as in revenue by the way.

We turn over the billions of dollars per year worldwide.

Not top 10 in other things.

I think we failed to make the top 50 in employee satisfaction! LOL

Why dont you go fruit picking imcrook, or are you to good to do that?

Why dont you go fruit picking imcrook, or are you to good to do that?   Maybe some are prepared to do it, but you wont get me working for under award wages.  Anything that's less than the minimum award rate of pay-    

I bet I don't get paid half what you do either.   

Quote:



my in laws went hop picking in England for years and years  we had pictures of them looking like gypsies... they stayed for the whole season.. for gods sake what a namby pamby bunch we are turning into..

shock horror picking fruit isnt rocket science they dont need any training or a degree get over it crook.. what do you want paying for a job like that...we all want fruit on our tables dont we??.. you can stick all your recent studies.,.. these jobs you talk about have been around for decades and no one complained untill the bloody unions didnt have enough to do so had to look for something to stir the pot with.. what a load of garbage..

why dont you suggest they stop growing fruit under the circumstances wouldnt want anyone  saying they were driven to mental break downs because of the boredom and low pay would we..

how about everyone run for union chief or delegate that way they will all be doing something really worthwhile for the country and getting a mice slice of pay as well... and once again you wouldnt need a degree to do either.

bugger the fruit who needds it?

If people want to go fruit picking good luck to them.  As long as people are treated fairly and have proper wages and conditions I see no problem.  As long as they get paid no less than the minimum hourly rate of pay.   (None of this under award pay rate rubbish though).   

paying on what you pick means they dont have to pay you a minimum wage,overtime rates,holidaypay,sick pay ect.thus if the crop is bad the grower gains cheap labour.Most Asians will continue working for as little as one dollar an hour because that is all they would earn in one day back home.thats why growers preffer them over aussies.