The Australian government has refused the company funding from its job creation scheme.
Courier Mail reported that Corporate Office Supplies, an office supply company based in Melbourne, is claiming that the government had “reneged” on its scheme to fund businesses that create jobs. The scheme, worth AU$100 million (US$77 million/€71 million), is to reward businesses by subsidising workers that are given a full time job for up to AU$20,000 (US$15,442/€14,307).
The same company was responsible for bullying a couple (https://www.therecycler.com/posts/australian-cartridge-scam-revealed/) in Queensland into buying nearly AU$80,000 (US$61,771/€57,231) worth of printer cartridges that they did not need, and a tribunal ruled against the company, which had to pay the money back to the couple. CEO James Murray said that they would appeal the decision.
Murray said that the government were not playing by the rules, stating that “we are still waiting for the Back to Work program funding promised by the government in 2016”, and claimed that the funding had been promised within two to three days but that was 10 weeks earlier. The government confirmed that it had not “provided funding”, but declined to comment further or go into details, and has failed to provide a list of the 1,000 businesses that are funded by the scheme.
Murray is reported to have said that the subsidiary company, Strantics, which is a call centre, would employ up to 300 worksers. However those still employed by the call centre said that the number of workers had gone from 50 to 15 since last October.