Hundreds of Centrelink workers will be forced to join the welfare queue after being ruthlessly SACKED – and they won’t even get a redundancy payment
- 420 workers at Centrelink’s call centres across Melbourne will be stood down
- The employees won’t be given redundancies because they are casual workers
- Employment will finish on October 30, as a result of a ‘change in contracts’
- The move has been described as ‘disgraceful’ by the federal opposition
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Hundreds of workers have been fired without redundancy payouts only two months before Christmas.
The 420 employees working as Centrelink call centre operators at Dandenong and Mill Park in suburban Melbourne were told on Tuesday their jobs no longer exist.
They won’t be given payouts because they were employed as casuals.
Centrlink Call centre operators will be forced to join the queue for welfare payments from October 30 (Pictured: queues form outside the Centrelink office in Melbourne in March)
They will be forced to join the queue for welfare payments from October 30, in a move described as a ‘disgrace’ by the federal opposition.
Workers were contracted to the Service Australia welfare department by the $2billion British Public Service group Serco.
The company told workers on Tuesday they had lost the contract for after-hours processing with Services Australia, according to the Age.
The 420 employees working as Centrelink call centre operators Dandenong and Mill Park in suburban Melbourne were told on Tuesday their jobs no longer exist (Pictured: stock image of call centre workers)
Worker Sinead McKinlay, 34, said even though it’s legal, it doesn’t seem fair to the workers.
She said workers began to ‘feel sick’ as soon as they were told they were going to meet with managers.
‘With our history with Serco, there is no trust. At a whim they shut us down, don’t pay us, cut us off. People knew something was coming,’ she said.
‘There’s a lot of younger and older workers and workers with English as a second language. They will struggle in the job market and face financial hardship … I’m concerned for their mental health, for potential self-harm and family violence.’
Serco said it is hoping to explore the possibility of finding work for the displaced employees elsewhere.
The Australian Services Union described the decision as ‘heartless’.
The union’s Victorian Branch secretary Matt Norrey, said workers are bearing the brunt of the company’s deteriorating business circumstances.
Meanwhile Labor’s government services spokesman, Bill Shorten is demanding an explanation.
‘The Morrison government preach a lot about Team Australia but are quite happy to give other Australians the boot,’ eh said.
Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen told Daily Mail Australia in a statement they are not responsible for overseeing staffing.
‘It’s important to note our service delivery partners are, and have always been, responsible for managing their own staffing levels in order to meet the contracted work and other requirements,’ the spokesperson said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Serco for comment.
Employees working for Serco were also asked to take leave without pay in July during an outbreak at a call centre in Mill Park.
About 450 staff were urged to apply for the Victorian government’s $1500 hardship payment when they were temporarily stood down.
Australia’s unemployment rate was sitting at 6.9 per cent in September according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s latest figures.
In Victoria around 223,000 residents were out of work last month, around 6.7 per cent of the population.
In Victoria around 223,000 residents were out of work last month, around 6.7 per cent of the population (pictured: a couple takes a walk along St Kilda’s foreshore in Victoria)