Hi!

It has been a couple of months since my last update.

As it stands, Centrelink, Workforce Australia and their supervising departments, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, are still refusing to take action on our petition.

With that in mind, I gathered the updated signature list and adjusted the official petition document in accordance before emailing them to the Fair Work Ombudsman for them to use as evidence when they take our case to court.

This is what I wrote in the email:

To whom it may concern,

I am hereby emailing you on behalf of the 451 jobseekers living across Australia who are petitioning against Centrelink and Workforce Australia with the aim to have all mandatory activity requirements permanently abolished from the mutual obligations they have imposed on us and all forms of jobseeker manipulation to be deemed unlawful in every single state and territory in Australia.

We have been waiting for a long period of three months for action to be taken by Centrelink, Workforce Australia, Social Services and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to take action, but nothing has been done to permanently abolish the mandatory activity requirements and we have had enough.

Given this, all 451 of us jobseekers request that the four companies mentioned above be investigated and taken to court on our behalf for the following illegalities:
1.  violation of human rights
2.  misleading jobseekers with information that hinders our job search
3.  manipulating jobseekers and placing them under excessive duress

Our desired outcome of the court case is for the above-mentioned companies to be found guilty of the three illegalities mentioned above and given court orders to take action on our petition immediately and have all mandatory activity requirements permanently abolished and removed from their jobseeker rules by December 31st, 2024.

We would like to advise that from here on in, the jobseeker manipulation investigation is in your hands.  Our lives depend on the outcomes of the investigation and the court case.

Please find attached our petition to Centrelink and Workforce Australia to be used as evidence, along with the full signature list as of September 13th, 2024.

Sincerely,

Ella Juric

Reporting Centrelink and Workforce Australia to the Fair Work Ombudsman was the final step in our fight against jobseeker manipulation.  The victory of our petition now depends on the result of the jobseeker manipulation investigation and the outcome of the court case.

Thanks again to everyone who has signed the petition and taken a stand against this dangerous practice.  For those of you who have signed within the last couple of months, if you have shared the petition on social media and/or in person, please update your family and friends and inform them that no more signatures will be accepted from here on in as the petition has already been lodged.