Casual staff who worked for the Australian Electoral Commission during the Voice to Parliament referendum have revealed that they still have not been paid for their weeks of work more than a fortnight after voting day.
A caller who worked for the AEC in the weeks leading up to the referendum told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday that the impacted casual staff included “pensioners, people with English as a second language and kids with mild disabilities”.
“The non-payment is probably the tip of the iceberg,” the caller alleged.
The caller, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, alleged that full-time AEC staffers treated the casual work force like “pieces of furniture”.
“They treated the staff there like pieces of furniture, so not being paid after four weeks as a casual is just an example,” he said.
“I’m not a salaried, full-time employee so I’m not sure why I’m waiting four weeks to get paid.
“I also witnessed large scale wage theft – according to the electoral agreement you’re entitled to a ten-minute paid break every three hours (but) the managers decided to ban those breaks.”
Two other callers who claimed to have worked on polling booths on referendum day also told Mr Fordham that they had not been paid for their work during the referendum.
“I was at a polling booth working my butt off and I still haven’t been paid and I thought I was the only one,” another caller said.
According to the AEC’s website, up to 100,000 temporary roles were created nationwide to cover the lead up and voting on referendum day.
Following the Voice to Parliament defeat on October 14, the AEC has also been the target of attacks over their handling of remote polling locations, including from shadow Indigenous affairs minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
“I think we probably need to look at the way the AEC and the (Northern Territory Electoral Commission) conduct themselves when it comes to remote polling at elections, at referendums,” Senator Price said on referendum night.
“I think we should take away those who come in with their how-to-votes, unions that come in and overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities.
“There is a lot that goes on in remote communities that the rest of Australia doesn’t get to see. If we had cameras in those remote communities, at those polling booths, Australia would see what goes on in within those communities. There’s a lot of manipulation.”
The AEC has emphatically denied any suggestion of interference in remote polling on referendum day.
“The ability to campaign at any polling place, including in remote communities, was of course the same for everyone,” an AEC spokesperson told The Guardian in a statement.
(SKY NEWS)
