The working conditions we fought for and won are under attack. Employer Groups have unveiled the changes they want as part of the Fair Work Commission’s review of our Award - the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Award.
Employers First, the Australian Business Chamber and National Disability Services represent some of the biggest organisations in our sector. And they're gearing up to attack our wages and conditions.
These Employer Groups have unveiled the changes they want as part of the Fair Work Commission’s review of our Award - the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Award.
What have these Employer Groups proposed?
- Annual Shutdowns: The Employer Groups want to introduce annual shutdowns. This would give employers the right to force you to take annual leave at a particular time of year, taking away your right to choose when you enjoy time away from work. If you didn’t have enough annual leave, you could be forced to take leave without pay.
- Career Progression: The Employer Groups want it to take longer for you to progress through your pay points. Currently, you move up a pay point in your classification after a year’s service. The Employer Groups want to change this to an hours-based system, penalising part-time workers who would take longer to progress through the pay points.
- Rostered Days Off: The Employer Groups want to make your RDOs shorter by changing ‘two full days’ off work to ’48 hours’ off work. Currently ‘two full days’ means two calendar days, so if you clock off at 1700 on a Monday you can’t be rostered to work again until Thursday. The proposed change means you could be back at work by 1700 Wednesday.
- Changes to shifts: The Employer Groups want to shorten the mandatory breaks between shifts and extend the spread of hour for broken shifts. They also want to expand the use of broken shifts to the entire sector. Currently, broken shifts can only be worked within 12 hours otherwise overtime is payable, but the Employer Groups want to expand these hours.
- 24-hour care: The Employer Groups want to introduce a type of shift called ’24 hour care’ in disability services. This is where you would be rostered to stay at a client’s house for 24 hours, but you are only paid for 8 hours work.
We’re fighting back
The working conditions we fought for and won are under attack. The Employer Group’s proposed changes would have a significant and detrimental impact on our sector and they must be challenged. The Fair Work Commission needs to hear from the sector, your experiences and what these changes would mean to you.