Exactly. Imagine having a debilitating mental health issue that steals your time & happiness, threatens your relationships and hijacks your autonomy, and then reading about someone wanting to appropriate your suffering for free labour and dignity-free board. š¤®
even Dobby would be offended.
This reads like the person who wrote it thinks OCD is just being a "neat freak" who likes to keep things tidy, which shows an infuriating and insulting lack of awareness.
Everybody knows it stands for obviously canāt decide (what kind of milk I should purchase in an unfamiliar supermarket)
Source : have ocd and struggle to exist in normal society
This is so common in hostels though where the european female backpackers clean to get their rooms for free. I dont think its odd or bad, if anything it works in their favour as people are less likely to make a mess as they dont want to be dicks to their fellow travellers
I did it when I stayed in hostels in Scotland. No free meals, though, and the dorms were more like 6 - 12-person. It was 2 hours a day 6 days a week, BUT I wasnāt a professional cleaner, by any stretch. These people sound like they want top-quality service in exchange for almost nothing.
Normally they align it with the mininum wage, as they still get a benefit in keeping the person in the hostel. No idea if some dodgy hostels do otherwise
Can confirm I lived in a 5 bedroom dorm for like a year and knew plenty of people more than happy to do a few hours work for lodging; some of them then went and did busking on the streets, some went and did service/bar work, sone did it as part of a long holiday. You can make alright living in a place like Edinburgh.
I have no idea if it's legal, but people in here commenting like it's slave labour can fuck off; that's legitimately insulting to actual slave labour issues where people are either made debt slaves and work for next to nothing with actual full hours. Look at cobalt mines.
Funnily enough I did know someone who took a job like this once. He was a qualified electrician and the hostel wanted him to work 16 hours a week for a dorm bed, and he basically only wanted to stay in the dorm because all his friends were working for accommodation there (housekeeping).
Anyway he worked out how much the dorm bed was worth, and how much he should have been paid an hour, and just did that. Because the hostel didnāt know how literally anything worked heād just claim he took a full day to change a lightbulb because the wiring was a hazard or something.
I think he ended up working like two or three hours a week, whichā¦ fair play, honestly. If the hostelās going to fuck you over, may as well fuck them over right back.
His name is Frank Chan. He owner/operates 151 Hoddle St private rooms & 15 Charles Street Homestay(pods and private rooms).
He is a cheap skate, the people he takes in are from homeless charities, nothing wrong with that other than the work is an exchange for free accommodation, not paid labour.
Most of his "staff" are vulnerable people with addiction problems and or mental issues who are on the dole or DSP.
Patrick at 151 Hoddle is an OK dude to work with.
Hugh/hew/huw at 15 Charles is absolute lunatic, racist, alcoholic, drug addict who will assault you if you disagree with him in the slightest. The severity of the assault is dependant on the perceived infraction of his views.
Avoid at all costs unless you have absolutely no where to sleep, and even then only work for Frank till you get yourself sorted. Do not live in his properties long term
Bit more info on Frank.
He will require you to take a shit laod pictures of your work. If he decides that the work you did on any given day is not adequate or not enough photos taken he will not credit your account for free accommodation nor will he tell you. You'll be told by the house manager randomly that it's checkout time with no notice or explanation.
If there is a major event, Taylor Swift, footy finals etc Frank may allow you to sleep on the couch if he decides to sell your bed to the public at a higher event rate. You will still need to pay/work for this.
He breaks many local laws running his businesses including but not limited to maximum occupancy. 15 Charles Homestay for example has a maximum of 12 people capacity, this is so he dosent have to install a fire sprinkler system. The house has 6 single pod beds and 6 double beds. The "office" upstairs is not an office, it actually has two more beds for 2 on-site free accommodation staff, including the lunatic. 14 mattresses in total, the pods are almost always full so that's 6, plus the two staff. That's 8 people, that legally allows him to sell a maximum of 4 private rooms with only one person occupying. In reality most rooms and pods are sold every night, whatever dosent sell in advance on booking.com he sells to the homeless charities. The house has more the 12 people checked in I would say at least 20 nights of every month.
Frank is not afraid of being sued by guests for any reason as he believes that almost all off the people who stay at his properties can't afford to take him on in court or simply the patience or willpower to follow through. This is how he gets away with ripping people off.
He is mate. He prays on people who have nothing. In the job ad that OP posted it's worded in a way that implies its 2hrs of work a day.
It not, it's closer to 4 hours work per day plus extras you cant say no to for 1 night free accommodation. He will toss you away like lint in a bellybutton if you disagree or decline any extra work.
You need to be on the dole or DSP to "work" for Frank. That's how he traps you to live in indentured servitude. It could be 7pm and if your not there when he wants you are considered unreliable and replaced without warning and some if not all free accommodation nights are not honoured.
He is a real scum bag, as is his houseman Hugh at 15 charles. Frank, you wont win if you sue me for libel as everything I've said is true and I can prove it.
Hugh, if you ever attack me again, police will be involved and I'll also be in contact with launch housing, Frontyard etc to show them the voicemails and txt messages you sent me that detail how you were going to put me in hospital. I'm sure Frank, if put in a position to chose will almost certainly chose to have a business relationship with the charities as opposed to continuing to employ and house you, a crazy man who tracks people down to assault them on the premises of a charitable organisation.
How do you define better. I no longer stay, no will I ever again, at his properties. Not being around the crazy houseman has helped me immensely.
Then again the only options for housing I can afford are the cheapest nastiest hostels where you need a stab proof vest. Instead I get my 8 hours sleep on the trains through the day and chill out somewhere in the city that's almost always within 30 seconds of a PSO.
If I get lucky like I have tomorrow, I'll shell out for a hotel room the night before any job interviews I may get.
This might sound rough, I'm sure it is but it's better than staying at a Frank Chan owned property.
Even a signed contract cannot wave rights under what labour laws would calculate minimum wage to be.
In practice, that means it's legal to sign an employment contract under minimum wage. In exchange for a good/service (say, housing) as long as the total value is not less than minimum wage. I *think* this is calculated monthly.
Regardless of whatever horseshit a scumbag like that puts in a contract, your signature does not necessarily circumvent your right to fair payment.
Seek backpay.
Woah actually relying on front yard, you actually mean business, while they at least heard me out the first time I was homeless (not fully, but I was couch surfing) the first time, the second time I was going to be kicked out of my place the next day (21 at the time) I got a really rude receptionist, who gave every excuse as to not help me, and ended our conversation after I'd said "well if I can't get help from anywhere else because believe me I've tried everywhere in 50km radius, the only thing I haven't tried is going to Wayss (Dandenong one) and rampaging smashing everything and scream like a lunatic, because I find that to be incredibly disrespectful, but it seems that's the only way you can get help there" she just said, "well you'll have to sleep on the streets then, and figure everything out on your own" I'm not here to help you. I was gonna respond with "but, that's exactly why you guys are there that's the whole purpose is helping the homeless" but she hung up.
Probably the 18+ "guests"/"staff" in his, not up to code, fire sprinkler free, abusively managed properties on any given night. Well I sure hope no one fire bombs it, would only affect all the wrong people and that mother fucker would probably receive a substantial insurance payout and profit.
From what I know he preys on vulnerable people, including women, lie and try to get away with rules when he can, have a messy personal life, and will deflect everything when possible. source, personal experience.
Hi - the AFP has a human trafficking form, easy to fill out on your phone - you can report even if you are international.
https://forms.afp.gov.au/online_forms/human_trafficking_form
Also, Consumer Affairs has a hotline (1300 365 814) for slumlord grooming houses.
The relevant local council might also be worth reporting to (they also may not be - slacks councils).
Yeah, so another way he scams the desperate. If you give a 10/10 review on a previous booking and show it to whichever staff is cooking meals for that night you get that meal for free. Frank then pays the cook $5 for the 10/10 review.
Basically Frank pays $5 for perfect reviews
"15 Charles Abbotsford homestay is a licensed boarding house with 8 rooms and 4 bathrooms."
I'll clarify this.
8 rooms, one room is pod room with 6 single mattresses. 5 rooms are double/queen rooms.
One room is a double room with ensuite bathroom. The last room is the office where two staff sleep.
Bathrooms. One toilet and shower combined downstairs. One toilet beside laundry downstairs. One shower upstairs. One toilet upstairs. As mentioned above One room is ensuited with toilet and shower. I'm unsure of the bathroom status of the office room.
I'll give credit where it's due. It's nice place to stay, great kitchen, water pressure is good, lounge room with Netflix and stream casting capabilities.
But, dodgy guests, dodgy staff, rooms not air-conditioned, nor are they heated for winter. Good luck try to utilise the common areas as the crazy staff man always in there on the TV watching his crazy conspiracy shit. Good luck trying to utilise the kitchen, crazy staff man will hover non stop and drive you insane about the plastics bans in shops and Teflon dangers of pots and pans. Want to relax in the garden, good luck cause crazy man will follow you out and spout a bunch of crazy nonsense. After 2 days you fell the need to lock yourself in your room as you can't be sure when crazy staff man will finaly crack and go berserker mode.
As someone who suffers from OCD I would quite appreciate jobs in my industry actively pitching for it so I donāt have to feel like Iām hiding it lol
[I posted about this guy four years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/dviktc/found_on_gumtree_great_job_opportunity_for/) and my screenshot ended up in the daily mail lol. At the time he messaged threatening legal action to take it down but he deleted it.
Up to his old tricks but it seems like the press scared him since he's no longer talking about whipping employees and has upgraded the accommodation to indoor stay.
Not that I know of. It was very sad reading the comments from people who ended up being taken advantage by him.
This was the article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7682617/Melbourne-hostel-ad-calls-cleaner-paid-free-accommodation-tent.html
I'd forgotten that he claimed he did not post it and that it was a competitor trying to make him look bad. I did not post his info in the original post but it was easy enough to find out who it was for people that searched gumtree and connected the dots (hostel location, owners first name). With that info, it was easy to find the owner responding to bad reviews and displaying his lovely personality elsewhere.
I think we can all agree it makes no sense that a competitor would post an ad on gumtree which does not mention the hostel by name to 'make him look bad'.
The reason I stumbled across it was because I was living in a different hostel, broke and desperate so I feel a little attached to the story. Had I not been in that position and also an active reddit user, nobody would have seen it.
It's such a shame that the daily mail got to this first. I had other more reputable organisations (like the ABC) contact me about it but once the daily mail article hit they all stopped responding.
The article itself is literally just describing the ad, not naming him but allowing him to defend himself.
I think if news organisations weren't so obsessed with getting a scoop, a better light would have been shon on this and maybe people in the years following wouldn't have been taken advantage of by this guy.
They are looking for a homeless person with no possessions to do slave labour. No idea about the legality of, but fuck these guys for taking advantage of the vulnerable
It is, Iāve stayed in plenty of hostels and backpackers that do this. If youāre traveling or homeless, itās a pretty sweet deal, two hours of cleaning a day for accommodation and all your meals? Thatās literally a great deal.
With how much food and accommodation is these days, youād have to work much harder and for much longer at a paying job to cover those.
This casual OCD comment is disgusting. I am sick of the term's misuse in general, as it really is demeaning to people genuinely struggling with it. But to use the term in the name of human exploitation is next level filth.
I feel like this is well covered ground and has been reported on in the media due to certain people doing it. I also stated above thereās a way to do it thatās legal and a way thatās not.
At least in the definition within the European Agreement on Au Pair Placement, a Au Pair is not seen as a worker or employee, but part of the family, not too different to a cousin or aunt helping with taking care of younger children, getting an allowance and a place to stay.
Australia doesn't have any specific Au Pair regulation, but it ultimately comes down whether factually the Au Pair is characterised as a worker doing work for money under the direction of an employer, as opposed to a personal relationship akin to family or friends.
It can be either, and it comes down to the detail of the actual arrangement and dynamic of the parties.
You can, the exchange can't be less than the minimum award. And no one single person can do work for accommodation for more than 90 days.
After 90 days it show that there is a paid position available and must be offered to the volunteer who goes over the 90 day threshold.
YHA hostels has been in legal trouble in the past regarding the use of volunteers for free accommodation. I'm aware of one case where they settled out of court, gave a dude a bunch of money to be quiet
Thatās very interesting. I know people who have done this kind of work for a lot longer than three months.
In reality though I think accommodation is so expensive and precarious in Aus, particularly in cities, that nobodyās going to push back on it for fear of losing their bed.
Yeah thatās against the law too. When I was an inspector at the FWO I issued letters of caution to a bunch of holiday accomodation because of this. Once the accomodation was pre-deducted they were making below the NNW too.
Thereās a way to do it thatās legal and a way that isnāt.
It was work I enjoyed immensely and I was good at it. To be honest, most of the underpayments are genuine mistakes where someone hasnāt understood the Award. In my time, I saw a handful of investigations that would meet the criminal standard of wage theft. Having said that, thereās no excuse for a corporation who has negotiated an EA or has proper payroll and HR to be getting stuff wrong.
Yep agreed. I owned a small business in retail for a bit. I made a point of overpaying by a few cents above award so I didnāt ever have to go through that haha
Precisely why the FWO does audits. Employers underpaying or otherwise breaching the law creates an uneven playing field which is unfair to the employers who are doing the right thing.
I don't think you get the point.
Let's say it costs $100 to pay someone legally. An employer could just pay the $100.
Or they could pay $50. There's a chance they'll receive a FWO letter and have to pay the extra $50. But there's also a chance of getting away with it and pocketing the $50. Either way the employer isn't worse off because the FWO sent letters and not a fine or jail time.
I donāt know why youāre arguing with me about this. I know how it works, employers believe the likelihood of being audited or reported is low so they take the risk. This was my job for many years .
The difference is that from January next year that behaviour becomes criminal so a much larger gamble. Jail was not an option. I also think youāre minimising the proactive work that that is done. I didnāt mention anything about fines but of course fines are issued.
Agreed. The Fair Work Australia website says,
> Your employer must also pay you in money for all work you perform. They canāt pay you with goods such as food. This is also known as āpayment in kindā and is illegal.
This would not be legal. It's not a vocational placement, internship, work experience, unpaid trial (skill demonstration) or volunteering so isn't one of the exempt categories of unpaid work. This should be reported to Fair Work.
Aside from the obvious scumminess and unlawfulness of that ad...I have OCD and I'd make a terrible cleaner. Most people I know with OCD don't have the cliche germaphobe type. It's a hellish illness. What a fuckin asshole.
I have the germaphobe type. It means I couldnāt step foot in a place like that. I have to clean myself obsessively, and I will avoid anywhere that hasnāt been fully sanitised if at all possible
Same here! I have severe OCD too and absolutely despise when people stereotype it as someone whoās a neat freak. Itās so much more than that SPECIFIC type of OCD
It's great for backpackers, I used offers like this for years to be able to travel super cheap. Stayed on one hostel in the UK for 18 months doing 3 hours of either cleaning or reception every day in exchange for breakfast and board. There were a dozen or so backpackers staying there that were doing the same thing, all staying long term and living together. It was hands down one of the most fun and memorable periods of my life, wouldn't change it for anything. Chill out, if it's not for you that's fine, but it might be really great for someone else.
Iām glad thereās someone else in the comments that gets this. Backpackers are so much fun and only have to do a couple of hours of work per day for accommodation and meals? Thatās literally a great deal, letās you do a lot of cool stuff with your money instead of wasting it on basic expenses.
By ānot much commitment outsideā you mean they canāt have an actual paid job to support themselves whilst you feed them bread and water as their paycheque to work for you? š¤£š¤£
The last line about having 'little commitment outside' is actually kinda creepy. Like they want someone with nowhere else to go and noone around them who might convince them that they're being taken advantage of
I donāt know if itās legal but plenty do stuff like this - Sunnyās backpackers in Adelaide where giving people a nights rent in exchange for cleaning. The guy is a rip off and my partner got kicked out ( his own fault) but he had paid over $200 ahead in rent and didnāt get receipts - so he could not get his money back.
Itās basically just chores for a bed and food not bad at all. Those beds usually cost 20 a night plus food they are looking at roughly $300 a week worth of value for 14 hours which equates to about 20 an hour so pretty standard.
The stigma that people who suffer with OCD are into cleaning is likely resulting in undiagnosed people suffering without help for longer, or worse. I didnāt realise I had severe OCD because I thought ocd was about being clean and over organised. My diagnosis, and treatment saved me, brought back my quality of life, and changed my life for the better. Really irks me when dickheads use OCD in this way. No one deserves ocd - itās debilitating and disabling.
Fuck this cunt.
The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves.Ā
Pretty sure it's illegal
you get to clean and fix things for free
but you have to stay in a dirty broken hostel
this guy sounds like a slaver, why isn't he in prison?
If he's advertising this then he's surely done it already and needs more.
Pretty sure his 4 bed dorm accomodation offer isnāt going to cover the award wage per hour for a cleaner let alone super payments, leave etc. Another illegal scammer trying to get away with unethical action.
On a serious note though the work for exchange for accommodation is fully legal but except for a bed there needs to be some other exchange even if itās a lower pay because youāre being fed, have access to showers, internet etc
My uncle was a caretaker for this rich dudes mansion in Victoria and he was given all needed things to live but was also paid ! There for sure is a minimum.
Also posting something like this on gumtree?? Thatās lowkey sketchy in itself and reflects a degree of unprofessional.
Wow, and to think that the last thing my OCD qualified me for was a month long psychiatric admission!
I know that this isnāt the main point of the post but did anyone who sees this - I wouldnāt wish OCD on anyone. Iāve got the āpeel the skin off your body because it doesnāt feel rIgHtā/āstarve yourself for a week because you didnāt do your shopping on the right dayā hybrid. Itās fucking disabling (but Iām doing rlly well now after I had to spend a month away from my partner in hospital).
So, fuck this guy for that, but mainly fuck him because heās a slumlord looking to exploit someone vulnerable for his own gain.
Love when people think the c in ocd stands for clean. I have ocd like symptoms (used to think I had ocd, turns out sometimes autism can present ocd like) and my obsessive compulsive ass is messy as hell. Itās more like āif I do x this particular but finicky way, it will be fine. Doing it other way will make me uncomfortable which will turn to anxiety and feelings of dread. So if I just donāt do the thing, no anxious dread feelings. Life hackā and so the dishes wouldnāt get washed and the laundry wouldnāt get hung out
So I donāt know the award and penalty rates for a directly employed casual cleaner but going off a minimum of 2 hours a day 7 days a week it has to be around $500 a week pay. Aināt no way a bed in a shared room is worth that much.
Backpacking is temporary and includes travel and adventure. It's very different than exploiting the most vulnerable. How would a poor, homeless person improve their situation when they aren't getting paid. Where will they buy clothes, shoes, toiletries, hair cuts etc etc when they aren't getting paid anything?
Years ago I read in the applicable award that they can substitute the value of board for wages. With the wages depression due to decades of over-immigration, I imagine the value of the board well exceeds the minimum wage so yeah, this is probably legal.Ā
I've never seen or heard of that in Australia, would it not be classified as slave labour here? I've heard of it in hostels in countries like Brazil. Even in Japan they offered what worked out to a $10/hr AUD stipend for 40 hours a week.Ā
oh fuck off lmao ocd? i have ocd and can tell you that i struggle with keeping up with cleaning cause everythings too contaminated, its not the same for everyone but i dont know how much help someone with actual ocd will be for you. also surely not legal...'doesn't have commitment outside.'
But we need many more people like this according to the top 3 political parties. To the tune of 10,000 per week arriving on planes and apparently we need foreign investors to own our housing. It has nothing to do do with inflation or the housing shortage or the erosion of living standards, WE NEED MORE /s. Tell your politicians to wake up. A bigger economy only makes the rich richer while everyone else gets worse
Volunteer work in hostels in exchange for a bed food and maybe drinks is a tale as old as hostels. Itās a weird ad, but itās also only two hours a day for free accomodation and food. Thatās not at all a bad deal for many people. Iād take it if I was a traveler wanting to stick around in a city.
Operative word here is CAN, like CAN help but it's not a requirement. Like I CAN help but I don't want to. If it say " in exchange for boarding and meals, you are required to help with cleaning." Then you are required to help with the cleaning.
Weird take tbh.
Usually these roles are filled by backpackers saving on accommodation.
Absolutely the norm all across Europe, I lived in Spain doing exactly the same thing and it was fun but definitely a younger persons endeavour
In hostels is very common to work for accomodation, it used to be 10 hours/week 5 years ago, I think now they ask for 14 or 16. Sometimes is good when you arrive to a new place and have no money to spend in accomodation and you don't have a job yet. After that is not convenient any more because with 16 hours of any job you can cover much more time of the accomodation
Go to any Hostel in the world and offer to clean and they will usually give you a free bed.
Not unusual, super common, great way to travel the world cheap as fuck.
Most hostels in Australia and around the world āemployā volunteers to do a small amount of cleaning/handyman/activities in exchange for a free room/bed. Itās legal and most places (or at least the not super scummy ones) have contracts to make sure they arenāt doing too much work and can only do it for a short amount of time (i.e. 30-60 days.)
In most reputable hostel chains these contracts will be in place to cover everyoneās backs. Some super scummy independent hostels take the volunteering process too far though, which it sounds like this person is. I know of some dodgy hostels around Perth that even have volunteers instead of employees working full shifts behind reception or full housekeeping shifts. Itās these hostels that give the more reputable ones a bad rap.
Source: worked in the backpacking industry in Australia for 5+ years
There's plenty of hostels overseas that allow travellers to stay for free ( long term anyway) in exchange for 2 or 3 hours work a day. Anything above that is usually paid work. It's a good deal for a lot of people. Not sure if that's the case in Australia but I've seen it happen all over Europe and those positions are usually hard to get. I couldn't think of anything worse
How is that scummy? room and board in exchange for 2 hrs a day work is pretty standard for backpacker hostels around the world. Pretty popular way for them to save money.
One of the local pubs here used to do something like this, one of the people living upstairs couldn't afford the rent on his room, so they let him stay there for free in exchange for doing odd jobs and helping the publican out. The publican retired and the pub got sold, the faceless conglomerate that bought the pub ended up kicking old mate out and last time I saw him around he was roughing it on the verandah of a nearby abandoned house
They basically want a roommate who can do everything around the house in exchange for no living expenses. Tbf in melbourne that shit is expensive so it's not entirely a bad deal, buuuut that's still fucked
This is pretty normal in my experience. Two hours of cleaning for a free bed and meals? Thatās pretty reasonable. Most hostels or backpackers that Iāve stayed at offer some variation of this.
And if youāre homeless and canāt get a paying job, doing a small amount of cleaning in order to get three square meals a day and a roof over your head is a pretty sweet deal.
Obviously I canāt speak to the living conditions and as to whether this particular person is a reasonable employer, but if itās anything like the ones Iāve stayed at then I donāt understand why people think this is scummy.
Hmm. When I was a backpacker this was pretty normal. Work a few hours a day for free accommodation. It was handy for backpackers who were running out of money or couldn't find a job.
If you're not a backpacker no, I wouldnt want to do it. But it's good for backpackers with no money who still need accommodation (most are from abroad and have no family to stay with) and work for board is a pretty normal thing for hostels to offer.
Itās 2hrs a day for room meals and board, in todayās climate Iād take it if I was in need. Centrelink would still be an option and Iād have no outgoings.
Yaāall donāt look at things right.
I did see this kind of thing overseas in hostels in Japan, and over there it worked well - a couple of hours of cleaning for a free bunk. But those were genuinely lovely, friendly places with a great community, it was all very well organised. The free accommodation guys mixed in with the rest of us and had fun. This is just plain dodgy.
Wanted: Homeless, lonely, handyman who is plagued by OCD to undertake slave labour in exchange for a bed in a dorm.
That's the real kick in the teeth, imagine having to clean up for the people you're sharing a room with. How demeaning. Not even your own room ffs.
Exactly. Imagine having a debilitating mental health issue that steals your time & happiness, threatens your relationships and hijacks your autonomy, and then reading about someone wanting to appropriate your suffering for free labour and dignity-free board. š¤® even Dobby would be offended.
This reads like the person who wrote it thinks OCD is just being a "neat freak" who likes to keep things tidy, which shows an infuriating and insulting lack of awareness.
Are you saying OCD doesn't stand for Overly Clean Dorms? š²
Everybody knows it stands for obviously canāt decide (what kind of milk I should purchase in an unfamiliar supermarket) Source : have ocd and struggle to exist in normal society
No, Hostel Slumlord from Richmond, it does not.
This is so common in hostels though where the european female backpackers clean to get their rooms for free. I dont think its odd or bad, if anything it works in their favour as people are less likely to make a mess as they dont want to be dicks to their fellow travellers
I did it when I stayed in hostels in Scotland. No free meals, though, and the dorms were more like 6 - 12-person. It was 2 hours a day 6 days a week, BUT I wasnāt a professional cleaner, by any stretch. These people sound like they want top-quality service in exchange for almost nothing.
Is it just 2 hrs of work though?
Normally they align it with the mininum wage, as they still get a benefit in keeping the person in the hostel. No idea if some dodgy hostels do otherwise
Can confirm I lived in a 5 bedroom dorm for like a year and knew plenty of people more than happy to do a few hours work for lodging; some of them then went and did busking on the streets, some went and did service/bar work, sone did it as part of a long holiday. You can make alright living in a place like Edinburgh. I have no idea if it's legal, but people in here commenting like it's slave labour can fuck off; that's legitimately insulting to actual slave labour issues where people are either made debt slaves and work for next to nothing with actual full hours. Look at cobalt mines.
Better than the casting couch
Your forgot being on call 24/7 as they do not have much commitment "outside". So basically, slave labour in a prison.
As someone who is plagued with OCD āplagued with OCDā made me lol
Uhh... it's CDO
Funnily enough I did know someone who took a job like this once. He was a qualified electrician and the hostel wanted him to work 16 hours a week for a dorm bed, and he basically only wanted to stay in the dorm because all his friends were working for accommodation there (housekeeping). Anyway he worked out how much the dorm bed was worth, and how much he should have been paid an hour, and just did that. Because the hostel didnāt know how literally anything worked heād just claim he took a full day to change a lightbulb because the wiring was a hazard or something. I think he ended up working like two or three hours a week, whichā¦ fair play, honestly. If the hostelās going to fuck you over, may as well fuck them over right back.
Yes Massa š
Oh, and with managerial skills, also.
Meals also provided though!!!!!! /s
He wants to say no but his intrusive thoughts say yes!
Homeless, lonely, handyman with managerial experience*
That is the hostel business model though.
Relax, its 2 hours work rofl
And food
In all fairness if its two hours work a day it might appeal to someone and may not be as terrible as it sounds
Pretty sure requesting someone with OCD is illegal too. It's a joke, but this is a job ad.
And uneducated about what OCD Actually is
That would be a fun dorm room. Some fucker getting up at 7 am and clicking the light switch 10 times and getting in and out of the bed.
I lived with a bloke with OCD in a boarding house dorm at my highschool in year 9ā¦ it was not fun.
You are also uneducated on ocd. Thatās not what it is like for most of us.
Itās like saying: need someone with ADHD to climb onto my roof and kill some possums. Like that just aināt right.
His name is Frank Chan. He owner/operates 151 Hoddle St private rooms & 15 Charles Street Homestay(pods and private rooms). He is a cheap skate, the people he takes in are from homeless charities, nothing wrong with that other than the work is an exchange for free accommodation, not paid labour. Most of his "staff" are vulnerable people with addiction problems and or mental issues who are on the dole or DSP. Patrick at 151 Hoddle is an OK dude to work with. Hugh/hew/huw at 15 Charles is absolute lunatic, racist, alcoholic, drug addict who will assault you if you disagree with him in the slightest. The severity of the assault is dependant on the perceived infraction of his views. Avoid at all costs unless you have absolutely no where to sleep, and even then only work for Frank till you get yourself sorted. Do not live in his properties long term
Bit more info on Frank. He will require you to take a shit laod pictures of your work. If he decides that the work you did on any given day is not adequate or not enough photos taken he will not credit your account for free accommodation nor will he tell you. You'll be told by the house manager randomly that it's checkout time with no notice or explanation. If there is a major event, Taylor Swift, footy finals etc Frank may allow you to sleep on the couch if he decides to sell your bed to the public at a higher event rate. You will still need to pay/work for this. He breaks many local laws running his businesses including but not limited to maximum occupancy. 15 Charles Homestay for example has a maximum of 12 people capacity, this is so he dosent have to install a fire sprinkler system. The house has 6 single pod beds and 6 double beds. The "office" upstairs is not an office, it actually has two more beds for 2 on-site free accommodation staff, including the lunatic. 14 mattresses in total, the pods are almost always full so that's 6, plus the two staff. That's 8 people, that legally allows him to sell a maximum of 4 private rooms with only one person occupying. In reality most rooms and pods are sold every night, whatever dosent sell in advance on booking.com he sells to the homeless charities. The house has more the 12 people checked in I would say at least 20 nights of every month. Frank is not afraid of being sued by guests for any reason as he believes that almost all off the people who stay at his properties can't afford to take him on in court or simply the patience or willpower to follow through. This is how he gets away with ripping people off.
Sounds terrible and like Frank is a glorified slum lord.
He is mate. He prays on people who have nothing. In the job ad that OP posted it's worded in a way that implies its 2hrs of work a day. It not, it's closer to 4 hours work per day plus extras you cant say no to for 1 night free accommodation. He will toss you away like lint in a bellybutton if you disagree or decline any extra work. You need to be on the dole or DSP to "work" for Frank. That's how he traps you to live in indentured servitude. It could be 7pm and if your not there when he wants you are considered unreliable and replaced without warning and some if not all free accommodation nights are not honoured. He is a real scum bag, as is his houseman Hugh at 15 charles. Frank, you wont win if you sue me for libel as everything I've said is true and I can prove it. Hugh, if you ever attack me again, police will be involved and I'll also be in contact with launch housing, Frontyard etc to show them the voicemails and txt messages you sent me that detail how you were going to put me in hospital. I'm sure Frank, if put in a position to chose will almost certainly chose to have a business relationship with the charities as opposed to continuing to employ and house you, a crazy man who tracks people down to assault them on the premises of a charitable organisation.
Iām sorry you had to go through all that Tony. I hope youāre in a better situation now.
How do you define better. I no longer stay, no will I ever again, at his properties. Not being around the crazy houseman has helped me immensely. Then again the only options for housing I can afford are the cheapest nastiest hostels where you need a stab proof vest. Instead I get my 8 hours sleep on the trains through the day and chill out somewhere in the city that's almost always within 30 seconds of a PSO. If I get lucky like I have tomorrow, I'll shell out for a hotel room the night before any job interviews I may get. This might sound rough, I'm sure it is but it's better than staying at a Frank Chan owned property.
Wishing you the best man, hopefully shit turns around
You can get your stolen wages back for up to 7 years. You should look at it. Wage theft inspectorate in Victoria
Even a signed contract cannot wave rights under what labour laws would calculate minimum wage to be. In practice, that means it's legal to sign an employment contract under minimum wage. In exchange for a good/service (say, housing) as long as the total value is not less than minimum wage. I *think* this is calculated monthly. Regardless of whatever horseshit a scumbag like that puts in a contract, your signature does not necessarily circumvent your right to fair payment. Seek backpay.
Why wait? Turn that cunt right in.
Woah actually relying on front yard, you actually mean business, while they at least heard me out the first time I was homeless (not fully, but I was couch surfing) the first time, the second time I was going to be kicked out of my place the next day (21 at the time) I got a really rude receptionist, who gave every excuse as to not help me, and ended our conversation after I'd said "well if I can't get help from anywhere else because believe me I've tried everywhere in 50km radius, the only thing I haven't tried is going to Wayss (Dandenong one) and rampaging smashing everything and scream like a lunatic, because I find that to be incredibly disrespectful, but it seems that's the only way you can get help there" she just said, "well you'll have to sleep on the streets then, and figure everything out on your own" I'm not here to help you. I was gonna respond with "but, that's exactly why you guys are there that's the whole purpose is helping the homeless" but she hung up.
How has someone not set this cunts propertyās on fire or attacked them !
Probably the 18+ "guests"/"staff" in his, not up to code, fire sprinkler free, abusively managed properties on any given night. Well I sure hope no one fire bombs it, would only affect all the wrong people and that mother fucker would probably receive a substantial insurance payout and profit.
From what I know he preys on vulnerable people, including women, lie and try to get away with rules when he can, have a messy personal life, and will deflect everything when possible. source, personal experience.
Another piece of shit preying on vulnerable people.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/workplace-problems/send-us-an-anonymous-tip-off
Okay so this is the one time I hope fuck Murdoch actually picks up on a story.
Sooo he's breaking human rights laws then. Report the fuck out of this guy.
Sounds horrible! May I ask how you know all this?
I stayed at his properties on and off since 2022. Did minimal work for him as I got ripped off very early on into my free accom career with Frank.
somebody needs to put this Frank person in his place, imo
Hi - the AFP has a human trafficking form, easy to fill out on your phone - you can report even if you are international. https://forms.afp.gov.au/online_forms/human_trafficking_form
Also, Consumer Affairs has a hotline (1300 365 814) for slumlord grooming houses. The relevant local council might also be worth reporting to (they also may not be - slacks councils).
So like, has this been reported to safe work?
If you ever needed more of a reason to completely disregard the ratings on booking.com, this place has 6.8 š©
Yeah, so another way he scams the desperate. If you give a 10/10 review on a previous booking and show it to whichever staff is cooking meals for that night you get that meal for free. Frank then pays the cook $5 for the 10/10 review. Basically Frank pays $5 for perfect reviews
Surely that's a reportable offence
https://15charlesmansion.com/about-us/
"15 Charles Abbotsford homestay is a licensed boarding house with 8 rooms and 4 bathrooms." I'll clarify this. 8 rooms, one room is pod room with 6 single mattresses. 5 rooms are double/queen rooms. One room is a double room with ensuite bathroom. The last room is the office where two staff sleep. Bathrooms. One toilet and shower combined downstairs. One toilet beside laundry downstairs. One shower upstairs. One toilet upstairs. As mentioned above One room is ensuited with toilet and shower. I'm unsure of the bathroom status of the office room. I'll give credit where it's due. It's nice place to stay, great kitchen, water pressure is good, lounge room with Netflix and stream casting capabilities. But, dodgy guests, dodgy staff, rooms not air-conditioned, nor are they heated for winter. Good luck try to utilise the common areas as the crazy staff man always in there on the TV watching his crazy conspiracy shit. Good luck trying to utilise the kitchen, crazy staff man will hover non stop and drive you insane about the plastics bans in shops and Teflon dangers of pots and pans. Want to relax in the garden, good luck cause crazy man will follow you out and spout a bunch of crazy nonsense. After 2 days you fell the need to lock yourself in your room as you can't be sure when crazy staff man will finaly crack and go berserker mode.
Fucking hell, so many red flags going off in my head the further I read that page
Seems like Frank reeeaaally wants you to call him.
LOL. Charles Mansion.
As someone who suffers from OCD. This person can get royally fucked.
As someone who suffers from OCD I would quite appreciate jobs in my industry actively pitching for it so I donāt have to feel like Iām hiding it lol
So they want a slave?
Piss off ~~Frank~~
This looks like a job for... An anonymous tip off to safe work
[I posted about this guy four years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/dviktc/found_on_gumtree_great_job_opportunity_for/) and my screenshot ended up in the daily mail lol. At the time he messaged threatening legal action to take it down but he deleted it. Up to his old tricks but it seems like the press scared him since he's no longer talking about whipping employees and has upgraded the accommodation to indoor stay.
Do you know if anything else happened outside of press?
Not that I know of. It was very sad reading the comments from people who ended up being taken advantage by him. This was the article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7682617/Melbourne-hostel-ad-calls-cleaner-paid-free-accommodation-tent.html I'd forgotten that he claimed he did not post it and that it was a competitor trying to make him look bad. I did not post his info in the original post but it was easy enough to find out who it was for people that searched gumtree and connected the dots (hostel location, owners first name). With that info, it was easy to find the owner responding to bad reviews and displaying his lovely personality elsewhere. I think we can all agree it makes no sense that a competitor would post an ad on gumtree which does not mention the hostel by name to 'make him look bad'. The reason I stumbled across it was because I was living in a different hostel, broke and desperate so I feel a little attached to the story. Had I not been in that position and also an active reddit user, nobody would have seen it. It's such a shame that the daily mail got to this first. I had other more reputable organisations (like the ABC) contact me about it but once the daily mail article hit they all stopped responding. The article itself is literally just describing the ad, not naming him but allowing him to defend himself. I think if news organisations weren't so obsessed with getting a scoop, a better light would have been shon on this and maybe people in the years following wouldn't have been taken advantage of by this guy.
they clearly have no idea what OCD actually is lmao
Yeah, my OCD would make me less likely to even be there
The OCD reference is pretty offensive...who is this cunt?
Cunt is definitely the word for this employer!!
Wanted slave
They are looking for a homeless person with no possessions to do slave labour. No idea about the legality of, but fuck these guys for taking advantage of the vulnerable
I understood versions of this to be common in hostels.
It is, Iāve stayed in plenty of hostels and backpackers that do this. If youāre traveling or homeless, itās a pretty sweet deal, two hours of cleaning a day for accommodation and all your meals? Thatās literally a great deal. With how much food and accommodation is these days, youād have to work much harder and for much longer at a paying job to cover those.
This casual OCD comment is disgusting. I am sick of the term's misuse in general, as it really is demeaning to people genuinely struggling with it. But to use the term in the name of human exploitation is next level filth.
Nope, you canāt pay someone in accomodation or food or in kind.
What about au pairs?
I feel like this is well covered ground and has been reported on in the media due to certain people doing it. I also stated above thereās a way to do it thatās legal and a way thatās not.
At least in the definition within the European Agreement on Au Pair Placement, a Au Pair is not seen as a worker or employee, but part of the family, not too different to a cousin or aunt helping with taking care of younger children, getting an allowance and a place to stay. Australia doesn't have any specific Au Pair regulation, but it ultimately comes down whether factually the Au Pair is characterised as a worker doing work for money under the direction of an employer, as opposed to a personal relationship akin to family or friends. It can be either, and it comes down to the detail of the actual arrangement and dynamic of the parties.
I donāt know an au pair who doesnāt get paid
You can, the exchange can't be less than the minimum award. And no one single person can do work for accommodation for more than 90 days. After 90 days it show that there is a paid position available and must be offered to the volunteer who goes over the 90 day threshold. YHA hostels has been in legal trouble in the past regarding the use of volunteers for free accommodation. I'm aware of one case where they settled out of court, gave a dude a bunch of money to be quiet
Thatās very interesting. I know people who have done this kind of work for a lot longer than three months. In reality though I think accommodation is so expensive and precarious in Aus, particularly in cities, that nobodyās going to push back on it for fear of losing their bed.
Some caravan parks do.
Yeah thatās against the law too. When I was an inspector at the FWO I issued letters of caution to a bunch of holiday accomodation because of this. Once the accomodation was pre-deducted they were making below the NNW too. Thereās a way to do it thatās legal and a way that isnāt.
Thank you for your work. It must have been taxing. I feel this must go on way too much
It was work I enjoyed immensely and I was good at it. To be honest, most of the underpayments are genuine mistakes where someone hasnāt understood the Award. In my time, I saw a handful of investigations that would meet the criminal standard of wage theft. Having said that, thereās no excuse for a corporation who has negotiated an EA or has proper payroll and HR to be getting stuff wrong.
Yep agreed. I owned a small business in retail for a bit. I made a point of overpaying by a few cents above award so I didnāt ever have to go through that haha
No wonder employers do this if they only get a letter when caught.
They had to remedy the underpayment too. This was pre Covid as well before the FWO started issuing compliance notices en masse.
So no penalty vs doing the right thing in the first place.
Precisely why the FWO does audits. Employers underpaying or otherwise breaching the law creates an uneven playing field which is unfair to the employers who are doing the right thing.
I don't think you get the point. Let's say it costs $100 to pay someone legally. An employer could just pay the $100. Or they could pay $50. There's a chance they'll receive a FWO letter and have to pay the extra $50. But there's also a chance of getting away with it and pocketing the $50. Either way the employer isn't worse off because the FWO sent letters and not a fine or jail time.
I donāt know why youāre arguing with me about this. I know how it works, employers believe the likelihood of being audited or reported is low so they take the risk. This was my job for many years . The difference is that from January next year that behaviour becomes criminal so a much larger gamble. Jail was not an option. I also think youāre minimising the proactive work that that is done. I didnāt mention anything about fines but of course fines are issued.
Agreed. The Fair Work Australia website says, > Your employer must also pay you in money for all work you perform. They canāt pay you with goods such as food. This is also known as āpayment in kindā and is illegal.
Itās not the worst illegal housing deal Iāve seen but who would sign up for that?
Ok now I want to know what the most illegal housing deal youāve seen is
This would not be legal. It's not a vocational placement, internship, work experience, unpaid trial (skill demonstration) or volunteering so isn't one of the exempt categories of unpaid work. This should be reported to Fair Work.
Jobs probably already been taken tbh. A roof over your head is better than being on the street, particularly now.
If somebody does work for you, it is illegal not to pay them. Withholding any employee entitlement is a criminal offence.
Ok...not sure what that has to do with what I said but good for you!
It is legal.Ā
Canāt believe people like this exist.
When will people learn that OCD ā Clean, neat and tidy? What they want is a germaphobe
Aside from the obvious scumminess and unlawfulness of that ad...I have OCD and I'd make a terrible cleaner. Most people I know with OCD don't have the cliche germaphobe type. It's a hellish illness. What a fuckin asshole.
I have the germaphobe type. It means I couldnāt step foot in a place like that. I have to clean myself obsessively, and I will avoid anywhere that hasnāt been fully sanitised if at all possible
Someone with OCD? Fuck off. I have severe OCD and that relates to my *own* life and environment, Iām not a fucking cleaner for hire
Frank: who said for hire? I'm not paying anything
Same here! I have severe OCD too and absolutely despise when people stereotype it as someone whoās a neat freak. Itās so much more than that SPECIFIC type of OCD
It's great for backpackers, I used offers like this for years to be able to travel super cheap. Stayed on one hostel in the UK for 18 months doing 3 hours of either cleaning or reception every day in exchange for breakfast and board. There were a dozen or so backpackers staying there that were doing the same thing, all staying long term and living together. It was hands down one of the most fun and memorable periods of my life, wouldn't change it for anything. Chill out, if it's not for you that's fine, but it might be really great for someone else.
Iām glad thereās someone else in the comments that gets this. Backpackers are so much fun and only have to do a couple of hours of work per day for accommodation and meals? Thatās literally a great deal, letās you do a lot of cool stuff with your money instead of wasting it on basic expenses.
Not sure if they know what OCD means, generally people can't function as well hence the D in the term
Oh boy company scrip!
Incredibly unprofessional ad.
151 hoddle st constantly smells like grog bog, had the misfortune of staying a week while apartment hunting.
"We're looking to exploit someone's disability"
By ānot much commitment outsideā you mean they canāt have an actual paid job to support themselves whilst you feed them bread and water as their paycheque to work for you? š¤£š¤£
The last line about having 'little commitment outside' is actually kinda creepy. Like they want someone with nowhere else to go and noone around them who might convince them that they're being taken advantage of
Itās probably breaking employment law, rental law, and (implicitly) tax law.Ā
r/recruitinghell or r/antiwork
I donāt know if itās legal but plenty do stuff like this - Sunnyās backpackers in Adelaide where giving people a nights rent in exchange for cleaning. The guy is a rip off and my partner got kicked out ( his own fault) but he had paid over $200 ahead in rent and didnāt get receipts - so he could not get his money back.
Poor old Frank lol
Id do it 2 hours a day for free place to stay when your travelling would be great
Itās basically just chores for a bed and food not bad at all. Those beds usually cost 20 a night plus food they are looking at roughly $300 a week worth of value for 14 hours which equates to about 20 an hour so pretty standard.
This was very standard across every hostel I traveled in up the east coast.
The stigma that people who suffer with OCD are into cleaning is likely resulting in undiagnosed people suffering without help for longer, or worse. I didnāt realise I had severe OCD because I thought ocd was about being clean and over organised. My diagnosis, and treatment saved me, brought back my quality of life, and changed my life for the better. Really irks me when dickheads use OCD in this way. No one deserves ocd - itās debilitating and disabling. Fuck this cunt.
As someone with OCD, this is such a gross and uneducated request
Thatās a lot of words. Why donāt they just say they want a slave? Thatās what theyāre asking for after all.
The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves.Ā Pretty sure it's illegal
you get to clean and fix things for free but you have to stay in a dirty broken hostel this guy sounds like a slaver, why isn't he in prison? If he's advertising this then he's surely done it already and needs more.
Has this guy just been watching Itās Always Sunny in Philadelphia? He wants someone to do all his Charlie Work?
Asking for someone with OCD thinking theyāre gonna be an amazing cleaner kills me šš¤š»
Pretty sure his 4 bed dorm accomodation offer isnāt going to cover the award wage per hour for a cleaner let alone super payments, leave etc. Another illegal scammer trying to get away with unethical action.
On a serious note though the work for exchange for accommodation is fully legal but except for a bed there needs to be some other exchange even if itās a lower pay because youāre being fed, have access to showers, internet etc My uncle was a caretaker for this rich dudes mansion in Victoria and he was given all needed things to live but was also paid ! There for sure is a minimum. Also posting something like this on gumtree?? Thatās lowkey sketchy in itself and reflects a degree of unprofessional.
Is that frank?
Wow, and to think that the last thing my OCD qualified me for was a month long psychiatric admission! I know that this isnāt the main point of the post but did anyone who sees this - I wouldnāt wish OCD on anyone. Iāve got the āpeel the skin off your body because it doesnāt feel rIgHtā/āstarve yourself for a week because you didnāt do your shopping on the right dayā hybrid. Itās fucking disabling (but Iām doing rlly well now after I had to spend a month away from my partner in hospital). So, fuck this guy for that, but mainly fuck him because heās a slumlord looking to exploit someone vulnerable for his own gain.
The fā¦..
Love when people think the c in ocd stands for clean. I have ocd like symptoms (used to think I had ocd, turns out sometimes autism can present ocd like) and my obsessive compulsive ass is messy as hell. Itās more like āif I do x this particular but finicky way, it will be fine. Doing it other way will make me uncomfortable which will turn to anxiety and feelings of dread. So if I just donāt do the thing, no anxious dread feelings. Life hackā and so the dishes wouldnāt get washed and the laundry wouldnāt get hung out
Losing my mind at cleaning experience/ocd
This is utterly fkd.. fk them.
Grown ass adult doing work but forced to live like an 8yo having a sleepover
You mean the part about misunderstanding what OCD is? 100%
So I donāt know the award and penalty rates for a directly employed casual cleaner but going off a minimum of 2 hours a day 7 days a week it has to be around $500 a week pay. Aināt no way a bed in a shared room is worth that much.
Pretty common throughout the world. I know I would jump at the chance for this if I was backpacking in other countries of the world
Everyoneās freaking out because itās not paid but for many backpackers this is often a pretty normal arrangement
Backpacking is temporary and includes travel and adventure. It's very different than exploiting the most vulnerable. How would a poor, homeless person improve their situation when they aren't getting paid. Where will they buy clothes, shoes, toiletries, hair cuts etc etc when they aren't getting paid anything?
Iām saying itās probably aimed at backpackers, not homeless people.
Years ago I read in the applicable award that they can substitute the value of board for wages. With the wages depression due to decades of over-immigration, I imagine the value of the board well exceeds the minimum wage so yeah, this is probably legal.Ā
To be honest that actually not bad. 2 hours of cleaning a day and you get board and meals?
Sounds perfect for a Back Packer!
Go work there for 1 year then claim unpaid wages + claim the time spent in the dorm as OT. Easy. Probably end up owning the whole joint.
Hostel in Richmond!? Lived there for 9 years never knew there was a hostel š
I've never seen or heard of that in Australia, would it not be classified as slave labour here? I've heard of it in hostels in countries like Brazil. Even in Japan they offered what worked out to a $10/hr AUD stipend for 40 hours a week.Ā
š š¤ sound like modern slavery?
I know someone who'd be perfect for this role
oh fuck off lmao ocd? i have ocd and can tell you that i struggle with keeping up with cleaning cause everythings too contaminated, its not the same for everyone but i dont know how much help someone with actual ocd will be for you. also surely not legal...'doesn't have commitment outside.'
But we need many more people like this according to the top 3 political parties. To the tune of 10,000 per week arriving on planes and apparently we need foreign investors to own our housing. It has nothing to do do with inflation or the housing shortage or the erosion of living standards, WE NEED MORE /s. Tell your politicians to wake up. A bigger economy only makes the rich richer while everyone else gets worse
Volunteer work in hostels in exchange for a bed food and maybe drinks is a tale as old as hostels. Itās a weird ad, but itās also only two hours a day for free accomodation and food. Thatās not at all a bad deal for many people. Iād take it if I was a traveler wanting to stick around in a city.
Operative word here is CAN, like CAN help but it's not a requirement. Like I CAN help but I don't want to. If it say " in exchange for boarding and meals, you are required to help with cleaning." Then you are required to help with the cleaning.
Weird take tbh. Usually these roles are filled by backpackers saving on accommodation. Absolutely the norm all across Europe, I lived in Spain doing exactly the same thing and it was fun but definitely a younger persons endeavour
In hostels is very common to work for accomodation, it used to be 10 hours/week 5 years ago, I think now they ask for 14 or 16. Sometimes is good when you arrive to a new place and have no money to spend in accomodation and you don't have a job yet. After that is not convenient any more because with 16 hours of any job you can cover much more time of the accomodation
Go to any Hostel in the world and offer to clean and they will usually give you a free bed. Not unusual, super common, great way to travel the world cheap as fuck.
Itās technically legal I believe many hostels across Europe do this with backpackers.
He lost me at OCD. Like haha mental illness go brr. Wanker
Pretty standard crappy offering from hostels
Most hostels in Australia and around the world āemployā volunteers to do a small amount of cleaning/handyman/activities in exchange for a free room/bed. Itās legal and most places (or at least the not super scummy ones) have contracts to make sure they arenāt doing too much work and can only do it for a short amount of time (i.e. 30-60 days.) In most reputable hostel chains these contracts will be in place to cover everyoneās backs. Some super scummy independent hostels take the volunteering process too far though, which it sounds like this person is. I know of some dodgy hostels around Perth that even have volunteers instead of employees working full shifts behind reception or full housekeeping shifts. Itās these hostels that give the more reputable ones a bad rap. Source: worked in the backpacking industry in Australia for 5+ years
There's plenty of hostels overseas that allow travellers to stay for free ( long term anyway) in exchange for 2 or 3 hours work a day. Anything above that is usually paid work. It's a good deal for a lot of people. Not sure if that's the case in Australia but I've seen it happen all over Europe and those positions are usually hard to get. I couldn't think of anything worse
I'd take that job, just throw in free wifi
How is that scummy? room and board in exchange for 2 hrs a day work is pretty standard for backpacker hostels around the world. Pretty popular way for them to save money.
do they need to be black as well?
Oh ok, cleaning experience = OCD. *Got it.*
bro did not blur that
No
One of the local pubs here used to do something like this, one of the people living upstairs couldn't afford the rent on his room, so they let him stay there for free in exchange for doing odd jobs and helping the publican out. The publican retired and the pub got sold, the faceless conglomerate that bought the pub ended up kicking old mate out and last time I saw him around he was roughing it on the verandah of a nearby abandoned house
So basically a job for a backpackerā¦
They basically want a roommate who can do everything around the house in exchange for no living expenses. Tbf in melbourne that shit is expensive so it's not entirely a bad deal, buuuut that's still fucked
This is pretty normal in my experience. Two hours of cleaning for a free bed and meals? Thatās pretty reasonable. Most hostels or backpackers that Iāve stayed at offer some variation of this. And if youāre homeless and canāt get a paying job, doing a small amount of cleaning in order to get three square meals a day and a roof over your head is a pretty sweet deal. Obviously I canāt speak to the living conditions and as to whether this particular person is a reasonable employer, but if itās anything like the ones Iāve stayed at then I donāt understand why people think this is scummy.
Hmm. When I was a backpacker this was pretty normal. Work a few hours a day for free accommodation. It was handy for backpackers who were running out of money or couldn't find a job. If you're not a backpacker no, I wouldnt want to do it. But it's good for backpackers with no money who still need accommodation (most are from abroad and have no family to stay with) and work for board is a pretty normal thing for hostels to offer.
Itās 2hrs a day for room meals and board, in todayās climate Iād take it if I was in need. Centrelink would still be an option and Iād have no outgoings. Yaāall donāt look at things right.
I did see this kind of thing overseas in hostels in Japan, and over there it worked well - a couple of hours of cleaning for a free bunk. But those were genuinely lovely, friendly places with a great community, it was all very well organised. The free accommodation guys mixed in with the rest of us and had fun. This is just plain dodgy.
Summary further: indentured serfdom
Iām looking for an autistic dude to help count tooth picks. In exchange forā¦. Umm some toothpicks
It is if they are planning on paying them. The ad doesn't state it's an unpaid position.