The Gillard Government will provide $7.1 million over four years to ensure five Community Based Employment Advice Services (CBEAS) can continue to assist thousands of Australia’s most vulnerable workers.

 

CBEAS are not-for-profit organisations which provide advice, assistance and information to Australians who experience difficulties in asserting and exercising their rights at work.

 

Clients of CBEAS include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, working Australians with disability, women, mature-age workers, migrants and young people.

 

The five Community Based Employment Advice Services which will receive funding grants are:

  • The South Australian Working Women’s Centre
  • The Queensland Working Women’s Centre
  • The Northern Territory Working Women’s Centre
  • Employment Law Centre in Western Australia, and
  • JobWatch (Victoria).

 

Services offered by the CBEAS include self-help information sessions for people representing themselves before Fair Work Australia, evening legal advice services, community legal education and research services, and telephone advisory services.

 

The new funding arrangements will commence on 1 July 2012.