Unemployed Due to Industrial Action (UDIA) 106-05020100

A person is not entitled to payment if the person's unemployment is due to industrial action that they are directly involved in. This also applies to a person who is not directly involved in that industrial action but the trade union of which they are a member is involved.

If the industrial action is in breach of an order issued by a State industrial authority, the Fair Work Commission or the Federal Court, then the customer would not be eligible for payment until at least 6 weeks after the industrial action has ceased.

A stand down occurs when an employer is unable to offer employees work due to the industrial action of others, and as a result employees are stood down without pay until the situation improves. If a person who is stood down is not a member of the same union as the workers taking the industrial action, then that person may be qualified for JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) even though they have not been dismissed. Those who are members of the same union would not be eligible for JSP, YA or Special Benefit (SpB) although their partner may have a qualification for SpB. The situation may arise when a person is dismissed due to industrial action of others. In these cases they should be treated in the same way as a person that has been stood down.

To try and gain the use of payments a person may resign from the union. Such a resignation usually takes about 3 months until resignation is formally accepted.

In all cases, it is important to look at what eligibility a customer's partner may have to a payment as they may have an entitlement to SpB.