Government Must Fund Minimum Wages for Support Workers

The Service and Food Workers Union today condemned the Government for forcing IHC to appeal to the Supreme Court over payment of the minimum wage for support workers working in community homes

Service and Food Workers Union National Secretary John Ryall said that disability support workers have been working at night for less than the minimum wage for more than 20 years and despite three judicial bodies ruling that the minimum wage needed to be paid, the Government was still refusing to acknowledge financial responsibility.

“IHC is providing a service for people with intellectual disability on behalf of the Government. However, the funding is based on support worker pay rates that are below those contained in the Minimum Wage Act,” John Ryall said.

“The Government is pressuring IHC to waste public money on more fruitless appeals so that they can delay the inevitable, hopefully till after November’s general election.

“How many times does the Government have to lose in the courts before they get the message that it is time to bite the bullet and pay the minimum wage to disability support workers.

“Iconic disability support provider IHC, which is currently in statutory management, needs a clear indication from the Government about ongoing funding support for the payment of minimum wage rates rather than being forced to waste more of their funding on fruitless legal appeals,” John Ryall said.

Note: The two unions representing workers in the disability support sector (SFWU and PSA) have been arguing for four years that support workers who are required to remain on their employer’s premises to be on-call for the people they are looking after should be paid the statutory minimum wage rather than an allowance equivalent to $3.77 an hour. The statutory minimum wage is currently $12.75 an hour and on 1 April will go up to $13.00 an hour.
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