A 120km drive to job agency: confusion reigns over Australia’s jobseeker requirements, union says

Jobseekers have reported broad confusion about the new Workforce Australia system - including among the employment consultants tasked with running it - with some asked to drive more than 120km to job agency appointments.

Hundreds of respondents to a survey conducted by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) this month listed issues they'd faced during the transition to the $1.5bn-a-year scheme, which replaced Jobactive at the start of the month.

"The interviewer couldn't give me a reasonable explanation why my permanent part-time work didn't satisfy my job plan as it did before," the survey respondent said. "The interviewer also suggested I take time off to attend job interviews without telling my employer why. Also inferred if I didn't could lead to problems."

Another person said they were connected to a Workforce Australia job provider 120km away. Though this was resolved after they called the department, a separate person said they would have to travel 137km to their job agency appointments.

Guardian Australia has previously reported on early tech and practical problems with the system, which retains the general rule that people must meet mutual obligations tasks - overseen by privatised job agencies - in order to receive their payments.

Many survey respondents complained they'd not been provided with enough or any information from the department or their Workforce Australia provider. Some said their job agencies were unfamiliar with basic parts of the system.

"I received a letter from my provider and when I rang them about an interview scheduled and that I had lodged a medical certificate with Centrelink. They didn't know what to do," one person said.

Another said: "There just wasn't any communication. I was told by my old job agency that they're shutting down and I'd be with a new one, so I knew that much, but when I went to the appointment I thought they would've explained the points system more but they just briefly showed me a piece of paper on it."

Jobseekers now use the contentious Points-Based Activation System (Pbas), which insists they obtain up to 100 "points" each month to keep their payments. Various tasks are assigned points, meaning jobseekers can fulfil their obligations by doing activities other than applying for jobs, such as education, counselling, or paid work.

Some have had trouble logging their requirements in the online portal, which also faced tech outages in the first week. Survey participants complained they could only log their job applications if they provided contact details of the employer. This was problematic when applying for jobs on platforms such as Seek, they said.

Cases reported by Guardian Australia include a man who was hassled by his job agency to attend face-to-face appointments which meant he'd miss work, and a 63-year-old woman told to travel a 250km round trip for face-to-face meetings.

David O'Halloran, a Monash University academic who volunteers with the union, said the responses showed the "level of frustration experienced by participants with the design, implementation, and initial follow-up of the new system".

Some of the survey respondents were more positive. One said they preferred the points-based system, because it gave them alternatives to applying for 20 jobs a month - a target they could not reach in a small community with few jobs available.

Another said that while it was good to have options other than applying for jobs, "the points are confusing and the expectation of 100 points is very intimidating".

The survey, which was advertised on the union's social media pages and sent to its mailing list, included 273 participants who made specific comments about their experiences.

Daniel Levy, the AUWU national secretary, said the survey showed the union had been "overloaded with complaints and concerns".

"Today we reiterate our plea to the department to do the humane thing, and suspend mandatory activities and punishments in its new Workforce Australia system for at least 90 days while undertaking a comprehensive review of the system's many failures," he said.

The government has paused welfare payment suspensions for a month and provided a "clean slate" for jobseekers' records before compliance starts in August.

The employment minister, Tony Burke, said: "When I spoke to the AUWU earlier this month I encouraged them to bring forward case studies. I'm looking forward to reading these stories.

"My department is meeting with stakeholders including the AUWU next week to work through some of the issues raised by participants.

"The department is also conducting its own survey in the coming weeks of at least 1,000 participants to get more direct feedback on the transition to Workforce Australia."