A QUEENSLAND family is searching for answers after 18-year-old Josh Park-Fing was killed while working for the dole.

Braving a tough regional jobs market, Josh was embarking on what should have been the start of his adult working life when he took a rubbish-collecting placement at the Toowoomba Showgrounds.

But the Meringandan teen’s life was cruelly cut short when he fell from a trailer and suffered a fatal head injury on April 19.

It is believed that the tractor that was pulling the trailer Josh was balanced on slipped a gear and jolted before hitting a bump, causing him to fall. He died on the way to the hospital after attempts to revive him failed.

Perversely, Josh’s family has been forced to set up an online fundraising page to pay for his funeral, due to restrictions in the Work For The Dole scheme’s insurance coverage.

Compensation payments for Work For The Dole deaths are capped at $250,000, while workers killed in paid employment attract payouts of up to $750,000 including $15,000 for funeral costs.

“Their injuries and lives are not considered to be worth as much as those involved in paid employment,” said Unemployed Workers’ Union president Owen Bennett, who is campaigning for the scheme to be scrapped amid claims of lax safety standards and pressure for job agencies to “churn and burn” job seekers.

‘LARRIKIN’ MOURNED

Josh leaves behind a twin brother, Jayden, along with siblings Matt, Locklyn and Jemma.

Mum Jenny Fing is understood to be too distraught to speak to media, but her close friend and colleague Christabel Dodds spoke to news.com.au on behalf of the family.

“No mother should ever have to bury her child,” Ms Dodds said.

“They don’t want this to ever happen to another family again, but at the moment all they’re focused on is grieving Josh’s loss.”

She said the close-knit family had been overwhelmed by their local community’s support, with a fundraising page set up to raise $15,000 to help pay for Josh’s funeral creeping steadily towards its target.

“He was quite an amazing guy, he was only 18 but he was so full of life, always smiling and having fun — very much a larrikin personality,” Ms Dodds said. “He just wanted to be everyone’s friend.”

“We are still so shocked by what has happened,” Josh’s uncle Andrew Fing told The Chronicle last week.

“Jenny has struggled to bring the kids up on her own, so for her to know she has the support of the community is great.”

‘TICKING TIME BOMB’

Despite being compelled to work 30 hours a week for the dole, young job seekers are not entitled to Work Cover as they as classified as volunteers, rather than employees.

The Unemployed Workers’ Union wants the system to be scrapped, calling it “a ticking time bomb”.

“Job agencies have a financial incentive to push as many people as possible to Work For The Dole sites,” Mr Bennett said.

He said calls to the union’s national hotline painted a picture of widespread abuses by private job agencies contracted to roll out the Work for the Dole scheme.

“One supervisor called us and said he was very concerned about how [safety checks] are rushed through,” he said.

“It’s a national problem ... We’ve heard many stories where people have come forward with safety concerns, and the supervisor says ‘well if you don’t do it, we’ll call up and have your payments cut off’.”

Another caller reported working on a site where he was not allowed to take toilet breaks, he said.

CALLS FOR INQUIRY

Mr Bennett compared the $6.8 billion Jobactive programme, which spends $1 billion a year on Work for the Dole, with the 2009 pink batts scandal, in which four young men were killed while installing home insulation under the Rudd Government’s economic stimulus program.

A Royal Commission found a “litany of failures” with that scheme, and slammed the Rudd Government for handballing responsibility for workplace health and safety to the states and territories.

Mr Bennett said an equally robust inquiry was “the minimum we expect for this tragedy”.

A forensic investigation into the accident is underway, and an Employment Department spokesman said that it would not provide further details until the investigation had finished.

The spokesman said in a statement that job seekers’ health and safety were “a priority for the Australian Government”.

“The department engages experienced and competent employment services providers to manage the Work for the Dole program,” the statement said.

“These providers are subject to rigorous contractual obligations in relation to the safety of job seekers participating in Work for the Dole.”

The department promised to “carefully consider outcomes and learnings from the investigations and, if appropriate, will make changes to operational policy and processes”.

But the Government “is not considering abolishing this important and successful program”, which “has been shown to have positive effects on participation and ... personal benefits,” the statement said.

dana.mccauley@news.com.au