Machine Shop Tunes Skills Of The Hard-to-employ

The Age

Saturday January 28, 2006

Wendy Taylor

People with disabilities score from agency support at work, writes Wendy Taylor.

SOON after joining the staff at Dandenong Valley Job Support, an open employment agency that finds jobs for people with disabilities, Patrick Ellis, then in his mid-50s, was asked if he could help a job-seeker starting at an engine remanufacturing plant in Dandenong.

"Knowing I had a background in automotive engineering, I was asked to train a guy at HM Engines (now called HM GEM Engines) who had to learn to dismantle starter motors," says Mr Ellis, who worked as a crankshaft operator and machine setter for 39 years before becoming a placement officer with DVJS.

"So I put on my overalls and did the training. At the end of the three months the HM Engines manager said, 'This is working a treat, let's try it again'."

Following several more successful placements of Job Support job-seekers, HM GEM Engines' founder and managing director Bruce Parker committed that Diamond Valley Job Support clients would be given priority for all the positions in the production plant that didn't require trade qualifications.

Ten years later, 20 of the 70 staff working in production at Australia's largest remanufacturer of car, 4WD and commercial vehicle engines have been placed in jobs through DVJS.

Most of these 20 staff have a learning or intellectual disability and/or a psychiatric disability.

All now hold permanent jobs and most are paid above-award wages. "These guys earn what they get. It's not a handout. There is a lot expected of them and they deliver," says Dean Taylor, 28, production manager at HM GEM Engines.

The job-seekers Mr Ellis now supports range in age from 20 to late 40s and work in a variety of roles. These include unloading engines from trucks and logging information onto computers, running parts between plant sections, or cleaning and spray-painting parts and engines. One man who started as a cleaner will complete an apprenticeship later this year.

Mr Ellis says that before holding down jobs at HM GEM Engines, most of these staff were either on disability support pensions, were long-term unemployed or had been in and out of work unable to hold down a job.

Nearly 700,000 people receive disability support pensions in Australia, a quarter of whom have psychiatric conditions and 10 per cent of whom have learning or intellectual disabilities.

In December, the Minister for Workforce Participation, Peter Dutton, announced that 10,2000 pension recipients had been helped to find jobs and that a further 101,000 places in employment and rehabilitation services would be available to help others.

Whether these people secure stable employment or end up hopping between poorly paid casual jobs will depend on these job-seekers being matched to and trained in the right job, and on being given continuing support to keep it.

Mr Taylor says having a placement support officer who understands the business and the jobs within it and who is readily available has been a critical factor in Diamond Valley Job Support becoming a long-standing source of reliable and loyal employees for HM GEM Engines.

"I can give Pat a call at 6.15am when I get in if I have a problem or at 8pm when I get home," says Mr Taylor. "It's been a very good relationship for a long period of time for both of us."

Mr Ellis visits the site three to four days a week and says such frequent contact is essential, even with clients who have been at HM GEM Engines for several years, so that any concerns are dealt with immediately. "I walk around and ask people how they are and if they say 'great!' I don't have to stop. But if a person says, 'OK, you know', I know he wants to talk. I have then gone in and said (to Dean), 'Someone's not feeling too good, I need some of their time'. I'll take him for a coffee and talk things through. This 45-minute chat will usually mean that person's good for another three months," says Mr Ellis.

He says the Job Support office would have probably trialled 50 people over the past 10 years at HM GEN Engines, and while not all have worked out, the ones who have worked have stayed.

He puts the success of the partnership down to the company's managers and supervisors being open to giving people a go; to being willing to invest the time needed to work with people on the floor to show them what to do; and to being understanding that there will be teething problems.

"We had five young guys in the cylinder head section and one walked out at the end of the first day. Dean said, 'That's a shame because he seemed to have the potential'. So I contacted him and said, 'Let's give it another go and I'll stay with you this time'. And it worked out. In most companies, if you walked, you'd be out," Mr Ellis says.

He also says it's just as important that he is available to the workers he has placed as it that he is available to the managers and supervisors.

"They have my mobile number and I am on call 24 hours a day, every day. I have had someone ring me at 8.30pm on a Sunday night.

"But if I spend half an hour talking to someone on a Sunday night and I can save his job, I look at it as money saved," Mr Ellis says.

© 2006 The Age

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