While the Australian Bureau of Statistics tries to salvage what is left of the census, it’s not just the failure of computer systems that the bureau needs to deal with. Two tipsters employed by the ABS as field officers have got in touch, with one saying the workers are “in revolt”:

“Due to ridiculously low work hours allocations in individual contracts, the visit phase collection of paper census forms is under a huge threat of not happening. Field Officers who have reached the end of their allocated hours will not be going out into the field for collection until such time as ABS HR make available the necessary time and incidental allowances to ensure that Field Officers are correctly remunerated.”

Another tipster tells us that they have been told to start work, but actually doing so is a challenge:

“I am supposed to start today as a field officer to follow up on those who have not filled in forms (non-compliance). But I am still waiting to start! Received an SMS yesterday from Census HR to log into Collect Staff Workspace for info from [redacted] and ‘looking forward to you starting this week.’ However it seems my ABS log-on no longer exists?”