banner
Home >News >HACSU Campaigns for 2020

HACSU Campaigns for 2020

2019-12-23

Here's a sneak peek into the campaigns we'll be focussed on in 2020. We're keen for members to get on board, be active and participate in our campaigns! Please get in touch with your organiser to find our how you can be involved.

We Stand for Super

 

A full-time worker on an average wage, from age 20 to 67 could earn an extra $12,475 by their retirement if their contributions were paid fortnightly instead of quarterly.

This campaign aims to align HACSU members’ superannuation deposits with pay cycles. Whilst most Australians are paid fortnightly or monthly, employers are only legally required to make quarterly superannuation payments. According to Industry Superfund Australia (2019), if super payments were aligned with salary payments, workers would benefit from the increased compounding of investment returns and retire with more money.

In our fight towards fairer superannuation for all, we’ll be including a claim for super deposits to be made on pay day in all new EBAs we bargain for. We’re happy to announce that we have been successful in winning the first of these claims in the recent Melba EBA. Melba have agreed that their next EBA will include depositing super into workers’ accounts on the day they are paid. Congratulations to members working at Melba!

6

 

Campaigning in Disability

 

Safety in disability will be a principal focus for HACSU in 2020. We’ll be working on improving safety for everyone, including workers, people with disabilities and the wider community. 

In 2020, we’ll be campaigning on several issues impacting Disability Support Workers. We want to see improvements to sleepover rates to ensure disability workers are paid fairly when you’re at work.

We’re also aware that in many cases, workers in disability are using personal cars for work purposes, including at times transporting participants. The major issue here lies in the level of insurance coverage these individual workers have. Unfortunately, using your car for work purposes might change the level of cover required and insurance isn’t something currently that employers must pay for. We want to change the way that workers contributing to the NDIS are interacting with care insurance to ensure that workers and participants are safer as a result.

join HACSU today

 

Injured Workers Day

 

Based on an idea from a Canadian organisation, we’re launching Injured Workers Day in 2020. This campaign will sit under a broader campaign to improve visibility of injured workers across Australia, and to lobby for legislative and political reforms. While this campaign will likely also involve organisations outside of HACSU, we’re hopeful that members will get on board and promote the rights of injured workers in the health and community services sectors.

 

Women’s Leadership Program

 

This year, we’ll be launching a women’s leadership program in collaboration with Tanja Kovac, Director of Kovac & Co. and Consultant CEO at Gender Equity Victoria. We’re already in the beginning stages of developing the program and having begun a research project with aims to determine what barriers stop women stepping into leadership positions. We’ll be opening up this project to members later this year; watch this space to get involved!

IMG_0024

 

Mental Health EBA

 

The Victoria Public Mental Health Enterprise Agreement (2016-2020) expires next year. You might already be aware that we’re going to be bargaining for this EBA in 2020 and that we’ve already spoken with members across the State about the claims that are most important to you. We’re putting the final touches on the Log of Claims which is the document we provide in bargaining outlining the things we want.

IMG_8623 - Copy

 

Drug Law Reform

 

We’re also going to be working with AOD advocacy groups on improving the rights of people who use alcohol and other drugs through improving legislation in Victoria. We know that properly funded services, working together – rather than in silos – can provide better outcomes for people in our community.

 

Growing HACSU

 

HACSU will be embarking on an ambitious strategy to radically grow our membership, and to create new systems and structures to support younger members, women, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people from non-traditional backgrounds to become more active in the union. As part of this we’ll be looking to our experienced delegates to work with us on a sharing skills and experiences with new members. To remain the strong union we currently are, we’ll be relying on the talents of our existing delegates to help build future delegates, activists and other leadership positions within HACSU.