Thurgoona woman focuses on jobs, not penalty rates

Jan Bell, 66, said since moving to the Border two years ago she had not found employment despite many applications and visits to job agencies.

She contacted The Border Mail in response to reports the Productivity Commission recommended Sunday penalty rates be set at Saturday rates for certain industries.

An Albury business suggested it could be harder to find staff for Sunday work without that financial incentive.

“I will put my hand up right now,” Mrs Bell said.

“I want to work no matter what day of the week or weekend it is.

"I'm not interested in penalty rates, I'm just interested in getting a job; being out there and working and contributing."

Mrs Bell, who shifted from Sydney with her husband Phil for family reasons, has worked in administrative roles for much of her career. 

Now the Bells have started their own business Crafty Bells, which sells safety protector sleeves for blind cords.

But Mrs Bell said she hadn’t expected job seeking to be quite so difficult in this region.

"You send off hundreds and hundreds of letters and resumes and things and they just seem to go off into the internet and hang there and you have no idea what happens to that information,” she said.

“You don't receive acknowledgements back that they've received it, nothing.”

Her time with an employment agency, which she declined to name, did not result in any interviews either.

"Every month I'd go in, he'd say, 'Oh well, you're a month closer to getting the pension,'”she said.

“You know, it just makes you feel as though you're over the hill and redundant.

"It was as though they were just biding their time for me to get off their books to be quite honest.”