First Nations Workers Alliance and CDP
Posted on: Tue 12 Sep 2017
In this week’s program, we find out about whether people on the Community Development Program (CDP) are protected under the Fair Work Act and have fair and safe working conditions.
Under the CDP – which is a work-for-the-dole program – people are required to do work in order to get their income benefit money from Centrelink. Given that they’re doing work, we find out whether people on CDP are treated as workers and whether they have fair and safe working conditions and whether these conditions are negotiated, agreed to and monitored.
Nationally, the CDP includes over 33,000 people, of which the majority are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – that’s about 31,000 people. This is a large number of people who are doing work but who don’t necessarily have the protection of legislation such as the Fair Work Act or Federal Workplace Health and Safety cover.
To find out more, we talk with Corey Ah Chee who is an organizer with the Australian Services Union and is involved in the First Nations Workers’ Alliance, which focuses on people who are working under the CDP and work-for-the-dole programs.
