Work for the Dole !

From July 1 those aged from eighteen to thirty who have received either Youth Allowance or Newstart for twelve months will be required to " Work for Welfare " to keep receiving their payments.  This will involve fifteen hours a week of compulsory attendance at whatever task they are rostered - and in the event of a " no show " - their allowance will be docked by one tenth for each missed day.

This " Work for the Dole " commitment will apply at eighteen centres across the state, selected because each contains a heavy concentration of those out of work.  Tasks will be in the hands of councils, State and Federal government agencies and welfare and not-for-profit organizations.   The vaguely stated aim is a mix of clawing back government money and bringing the benefit of acquiring some sort of work skill to the unemployed.

Hopefully, we have learned something from the last time this scheme was implemented.  At that time the beneficiary was mainly local councils and the tasks selected were either " make work " oriented - or the unemployed were eagerly accepted as " free labourers " to save money by completing tasks that would otherwise be done with paid help.

By coincidental timing, this last scheme meshed with plans for the refurbishment of the mall in Wollongong and this involved laying pavers throughout the CBD.   This task was alotted to the new labour force reporting for work - and it was a disaster that still haunts council finances.    Laying pavers is a skilled job - and the work for the dole crews simply did not have that skill  Shortly after completion the faults began to appear, resulting in falls and women with snapped shoe heels.   Compensation claims jumped sharply - and eventually - whole sections of the CBD had to be torn up and professionally re-laid. 

Putting this scheme in place opens an opportunity to get work done that is financially out of reach because of budget restraints.   It will surely fail if the " make work " objective is the sole criteria - and we have people painting rocks white to give the appearance that something is being done - but to no worthwhile end.

What we need is people with vision to carefully plan a logical outcome that will bring both a benefit and at the same time deliver a sense of achievement to those who worked in it's creation.   We can not expect those forced to work for the dole to be enthusiastic at what many will consider " forced labour " , but it would be possible to generate a degree of " pride " at a successful and widely praised outcome.

Job planning will be the crux of success - and that will take the selection of planners who think outside the nine dots.   Who will have that task is not clear.    So many initiatives that have very good intentions fail because there is no follow through to get the implementation right.

It is said that those who fail to learn from history - are destined to repeat those same mistakes.   Let us hope that what happened to the pavers in the Wollongong mall is not a portend of things to come !