Sydney demo on jobs crisis
By Michael Tardif
SYDNEY — Students, workers and the unemployed will demonstrate on April 28 against the federal government's approach to the unemployment crisis.
The Cross Campus Education Network, which is organising the march and rally, says that proposals contained in the government's green paper on employment blame the victim rather than posing solutions.
Ironically titled "Restoring Full Employment", the green paper estimates that it will only be possible to reduce unemployment to 5% by the year 2000 — if the economy grows at 4.5%.
Accepting this as the only approach, the green paper argues for "increased productivity" and "greater labour market flexibility" in order to attain such levels of economic growth.
The strategy involves a combination of subsidies to business in the form of a "Jobs Compact" and training schemes for the unemployed.
Sam Lazaro from the CCEN and a student at Macquarie University made the point that subsidising business to employ people "doesn't create jobs; it just displaces currently employed people from existing jobs".
This is substantiated by the government's present business subsidy scheme, Jobstart. Only 30% of participants remain in a job three months after the subsidy runs out. Expanding this scheme to a Jobs Compact compulsory for all long-term unemployed amounts to the introduction of a work for the dole scheme.
The expansion of training schemes through universities and vocational training is little more than an attempt to increase downward pressure on wages by increasing competition between job-seekers.
"What this all ignores", commented Lazaro, "is the question of actually creating jobs. There are real social priorities out there, where we should be directing our resources. Rather than subsidising business, let's invest in creating real jobs for the restoration and protection of the environment, or expanding the public health system.
"This is what we'll be demanding on the 28th. We want real jobs, not training schemes and corporate handouts."