Casualisation of the workforce
There is no incentive for finding job seekers full-time work. In fact, incentives fall the other way. The entire employment industry is rewarded for splitting full-time positions into part-time positions.
This is how it works:
- A full-time job becomes available
- As an employment service provider I have a choice: offer the one job to one job seeker or split the job into two, three, four or five part-time jobs, depending on what I can get away with.
Here’s the rub …
Five problems with the current incentives
Having complained about the perverse incentive arrangement for Disability Employment Services (DES) in the past, I feel the need to explain the numbers behind the complaint.
Bear with me. It’s complicated and unbelievably silly.
Problem 1:
DES providers are not necessarily rewarded for finding full-time work, no matter how capable the job candidate. We’re rewarded according to the number of jobs found. This creates the next problem.
The commercialisation of poverty
Farming out the care of our own to others doesn’t work.
Why would we think it could?
When governments award contracts to for-profit providers from overseas, who is the main stakeholder in the deal?
Malingerers and their hip pockets
I’m sick of conservatives in power basing their treatment of job seekers at least in part on the idea that ‘these people are malingerers’.
Surely this is the reason for the latest contract providing more of a stick than a carrot with demerit points lost for ‘misdemeanours’, such as missing appointments.
Contact me
In his timely book, Martin Wren challenges readers to create a world that truly works for everyone, including the most marginalised and vulnerable. An indispensable resource for anyone interested or involved in the employment of people with disability.
A lot of what Martin Wren talks about will seem like common sense. But providing quality employment services using the principles outlined here is anything but common. I know you will find this book useful, enjoyable and challenging.
