{"id":27880,"date":"2026-06-09T12:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27880\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:48:16","slug":"asu-files-historic-35-pay-rise-claim-for-disability-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27880\/","title":{"rendered":"ASU files historic 35% pay rise claim for disability workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Services Union<\/a> will seek pay rises of up to 35 per cent for 300,000 community and disability workers in a \u201chistoric\u201d work value claim that would have to be funded by federal and state governments if successful.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the claim being filed in the Fair Work Commission<\/a> on Wednesday, ASU national secretary Emeline Gaske said the 35\u00a0per cent pay rise, which would be likely phased in over years if awarded, was warranted because the largely feminised workforce was underpaid and undervalued.<\/p>\n

The 135,000-member ASU estimates the average annual wage of full-time workers impacted would be about $80,000, although lower for the many part-time and casual workers employed in the community and disability sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity and disability workers have been undervalued and underpaid for too long\u201d, Ms Gaske said. \u201cFiling this claim is the ASU saying clearly and loudly that we intend to fix that. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to kick off a campaign to make sure the government funds this because it\u2019s time the government put its money where its mouth is. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working with the government in this campaign. A major pay rise for these workers is the final step to address gender undervaluation in the community sector and gender inequity across the country.\u201d <\/p>\n

The union has not put a headline figure on the cost of the claim, which would impact different workers under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award including those employed in the community legal sector, fin\u00adancial counsellors and workers supporting children experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

The bid to achieve real wages growth for workers covered by the SCHADS award follows last week\u2019s gender undervaluation decision by the commission, which the union said had closed a homecare loophole exploited by \u201cbad faith\u201d employers.<\/p>\n

Under the loophole, some workers providing support in the homes of people with disabilities were being paid less than those doing the same outside of homes. <\/p>\n

Ms Gaske said one in 10 \u201cdodgy\u201d NDIS providers had been able to pay workers up to $16,000 less because of where they worked. Under the decision, the impacted disability support workers could be paid an extra 27 per cent from October 1.<\/p>\n

She said the closure of this loophole would end a \u201crort exploited by bad faith employers, who paid workers less than the amount they claimed in government NDIS funding, and then pocketed the difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, she said the decision protected but did not fix the wages of the community and disability workers who had spent more than a decade absorbing growing complexity, higher regulatory demands and greater community need. \u201cThe work value claim will demonstrate that since the last major pay review in 2012, the complexity of work for community and disability workers has grown substantially.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese workers, across an underpaid, feminised workforce, now apply person-centred, \u00adtrauma-informed care, harm reduction methods and culturally competent practice as standard. <\/p>\n

\u201cRegulatory requirements have vastly increased and the communities being served are larger and their needs are more acute but their pay has failed to reflect these growing demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Jobs and Skills Australia, the sector will grow by 23 per cent by 2035. However, union surveys found 29 per cent of community workers reported borrowing money from family or friends to meet basic living costs, and 13 per cent said they skipped meals due to a shortage of money. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe surveyed our members and what they told us was stark. More than half say they cannot get ahead financially,\u201d Ms Gaske said. \u201cOne in three won\u2019t have enough to retire on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this leads to turnover in the sector being too high. These are skilled, experienced professionals doing vital work, and they cannot afford to live on what they are paid. As the sector continues to grow and demand for workers is surging, we can\u2019t afford to lose workers because pay is failing to keep up with the cost of living. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething has to give, and that something is pay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Services Union will seek pay rises of up to 35 per cent for 300,000 community and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,25689,25700,25686,25705,25691,25707,25696,16706,25687,25697,25706,25699,25698,8330,25688,25695,25703,7000,25704,8449,25694,25701,25690,25692,25702,25693],"class_list":["post-27880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-average-annual-wage","tag-community-sector","tag-community-workers","tag-disability-sector","tag-disability-workers","tag-faith-employers","tag-final-step","tag-frontline-workers","tag-gender-undervaluation","tag-gender-undervaluation-decision","tag-government-funds","tag-harm-reduction-methods","tag-headline-figure","tag-home-care","tag-home-care-and-disability-services","tag-living-costs","tag-national-secretary","tag-pay-rise","tag-pay-rises","tag-real-wages","tag-seeking-pay-rises","tag-union-surveys","tag-value-claim","tag-work-outside","tag-work-value-claim","tag-workplace-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}