Minister refuses guarantee on Job Ops jobs
Paula Bennett today refused to guarantee that her two Job Op ‘poster youth’ had taken newly created jobs, says Labour’s Social Development spokesperson Annette King.
“The Job Ops package offers a $5000 subsidy to an employer to encourage them to create opportunities for young people.
“The subsidy is designed to create new jobs and is not able to be used for pre-existing vacancies, as this could disadvantage older workers,” says Annette King.
“Paula Bennett issued a release yesterday saying that a 17 year-old youth got a job at a Dunedin factory and a young woman who got a job in a cafe on Monday, the day after the scheme was announced,” Annette King says.
“She used it as proof that ‘Job Ops flow on day one’.
“Given the spectacular failure of the Government’s Restart package, it’s not surprising she is desperate to point to a more successful recession policy.
“The Government set aside $50 million for Restart over a two year period, but has spent only $2.7 million on it to date, despite big increases in unemployment.
“But the Minister’s refusal in the House to guarantee these two Job Ops placements were not a result of pre-existing vacancies was worrying. I now challenge her to guarantee this is not the case,” Annette King says.
“If she can’t do this, it suggests this will do nothing more than put people on a jobless merry-go-round.”
