Breaking! Union won pay rise
In a huge union win, today we have secured an Award Wage increase of 4.6% in the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review.
This 4.6% increase applies to all workers on the SCHADS Award from 1 July 2022. Award-free employees on the minimum wage will receive a 5.2% increase.
We told the Fair Work Commission that workers deserve a fair pay rise that keeps up with cost of living, and they listened.
Changes to the SCHADS Award
Changes to the Award for Community and Disability Workers are coming on 1 July 2022.
ASU Members can stay up to date on their rights and entitlements at work by watching this member briefing with ASU Deputy Secretary Judith Wright.
Get the full story: What would Qantas' plan really mean for SPG employees?
The ASU is gravely concerned that Qantas is only telling staff select information about what would it mean if SPG employees were removed from the coverage of the ASU EBA and moved onto individual contracts.
All SPG employees need to know the full implication of Qantas’s plan – read the ASU SPG Q&A here.
We Won't Wait Win! 10 days Paid Domestic Violence Leave in every Award
BREAKING: Unions have won 10 days paid family and domestic violence in ALL awards in Australia!
The Fair Work Commission has issued their decision to support 10 days paid Domestic Violence Leave in all modern Awards in Australia.
The FWC agree with unions that this life saving leave will provide “significant assistance” to those leaving violence.
Election 2022: Where do the major parties stand on ASU member priorities?
We are in a cost of living crisis. Healthcare, housing, petrol, electricity, and groceries are all skyrocketing.
Our services have been stretched to the limit.
Together we have campaigned over the last three years for:
- Better wages and conditions at work
- A better NDIS
- Better funding and respect for community services
- A better society where no one is left behind and everyone is valued
Why we need to change the Government
"We have had a decade of cuts and destruction under the current Coalition Government and now is our chance to stop the damage."
This special guest article by ASU Secretary Natalie Lang is included in the election edition of ASU College Journal. Read the whole Journal here.
NDIS: 2022 Election Report Card
Today is the NDIS National Day of Action.
ASU members and people with disability all over the country are speaking out to to #DefendOurNDIS
The NDIS supports over 450,000 people, and employs over 270,000. We need a government that puts people with a disability, their families and carers back at the centre of the NDIS.
That's why as part of the National Day of Action to #DefendOurNDIS, we have released our NDIS election guide.
Right To Vote: Let People With Disability Vote
On 21 May this year, most adult Australians will vote in the Federal Election. However, there is a whole section of our community who can be removed from the Electoral Roll and disallowed from having their say: people deemed to be of “unsound mind.”
In an open letter to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, the Australian Services Union has joined a group of 65 legal, disability and civil society organisations calling for action to protect the right of people with disability to vote.
Between 2008 and 2012, more than 28,000 people were removed from the Federal electoral roll due to archaic and offensive ‘unsound mind’ provisions in the Commonwealth Electoral Act.
These provisions disproportionately prevent Australians with intellectual, psychosocial disabilities and cognitive disabilities from voting.
Blessed? Morrison's NDIS failures
During the first Leaders' Debate, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked by an audience member, Catherine, about NDIS funding cuts.
Catherine, the mother of an autistic four-year-old, said her son's NDIS funding had been cut by 30%.
Scott Morrison said that he could not understand her challenges because he and Jenny have been "blessed" with two children without disability.
Every Australian Counts said, "For people who don't really know disability, this kind of commentary may appear benign. But we know this hurts people in our community, a lot."
According to the latest NDIS Quarterly Report on average, people with disability had their NDIS packages cut in the last 12 months by 4% (an average cut of $2,700 per person).
This comes the day after Anthony Albanese and the Labor party announced their new NDIS policy.
The ASU is proud to support the Every Australian Counts campaign to #DefendOurNDIS.
Better Off Overall?
Have you heard about the Better Off Overall Test? It's in the news right now, and is a key issue in this year's Federal Election.
The Better Off Overall Test (aka BOOT) is:
A test the Fair Work Commission uses to assess registered agreements against awards. The registered agreement is compared to the relevant award to ensure the employee is better off overall under the registered agreement in order for it to be approved.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald:
Labor is warning the Coalition will resurrect a proposal to water down laws that protect workers from losing money in pay negotiations as it targets Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s industrial relations plans while cost of living pressures start to bite.
The opposition has seized on comments from Morrison over the weekend in which he said he would bring back the omnibus industrial relations bill, which was gutted in the Senate during the pandemic.
According to The Age:
Scott Morrison said during a press conference in Adelaide “there are no major changes to the BOOT at all”. But he said the reforms he was looking to revive were “about simplification and ensuring that there’s greater flexibility to ensure “these companies can work with what is an often complex industrial relations system, which cost jobs, costs higher wages, and it costs the Australian economy”.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus accused Morrison of “saying one thing and doing another. His plans to cut wages and undermine the rights of working people are still in place.”
During the televised Leader's Debate on Sky News Anthony Albanese said, "If you’re getting rid of the Better Off Overall Test, it means you don’t want people to be better off overall."