‘Thank you doesn’t pay the bills’: ASU files wage increase claim with FWC

The Australian trade union has outlined current rates of retention and turnover in the sector as the key drivers for its latest campaign.

In a press conference yesterday (10 June) outside the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in Melbourne, the Australian Services Union (ASU) officially filed for a 35 per cent wage increase for community and disability service workers.

According to ASU national secretary Emeline Gaske, the figure is both “what we think they’re worth” and a response to sustained undervaluation at a time of increased workforce and capability demands.

She said: “You don’t have to be a mathematician to see that if you need to grow the workforce just to meet existing demand and you’ve got workers who are fleeing the industry because they cannot afford to do their jobs anymore, that you’re going to have a crisis.”

“We need to grow the workforce by over 100,000 workers in the coming years just to keep up with demand. Research tells us that more than a third are considering leaving this year because they cannot afford to do the work they do and make ends meet.”

“Today, we begin fixing that.”

Ahead of the press conference, the union classified the FWC’s recent decision to maintain the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award as an incomplete victory that protected wages, but did not fix them.

The decision concluded the FWC’s assessment of gender-based undervaluation, during which time the union’s ongoing work value claim was paused.

The statement said: “Community and disability workers have spent over a decade absorbing growing complexity, higher regulatory demands and greater community need. They’ve absorbed all of this on pay that has failed to reflect the true value of what they do.”

Similarly, Gaske said: “We surveyed our members, and what they told us was stark. More than half say they cannot get ahead financially. One in three won’t have enough to retire on.”

“These workers hold communities together. They are overwhelmingly women, doing extraordinary skilled and demanding work, but they’ve been underpaid for too long. That is what this claim is about.”

“Just 12 months ago, workers in this sector were facing pay cuts of up to $900 a week. We fought that off. Now we’re going to finish the job by demanding a pay raise for the sector because it’s long overdue.”

The claim represents the first major pay review since the ASU’s historic 2012 win in the FWC, which resulted in up to 41 per cent in incremental pay increases.

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