Home >Campaigns >Yooralla, Value us Campaign!

VALUE US, YOORALLA!

The current Yooralla agreement expired in 2009 and has not been negotiated since 2006. This means the conditions detailed in this agreement are now ten years old, and wages are the award minimum. HACSU members at Yooralla have stood up to ask Yooralla to negotiate a fair deal.

Since the agreement's expiration, Yooralla management has delayed and refused to negotiate above the award minimum. It's time for Yooralla management to offer a fair deal. Yooralla is struggling to attract and maintain highly skilled and experienced disability support workers without decent wages and conditions, which means service delivery will suffer.

This agreement will cover members working in Yooralla accommodation and individualised support services.

To deliver quality care, we need to attract and retain workers. We need to make disability work a career of choice by providing decent wages, conditions, training and ongoing professional development.

Through enterprise bargaining, we can set decent working standards for disability support workers. 

The new Yooralla EBA came into effect in March 2018.

You should have received your handy guide to the new Yooralla EBA & the changes you'll be seeing at work in the mail this week. You can also download it as a high quality (bigger)  file here or low-resolution (smaller) file here .

yooralla eba meeting smaller res

ENTERPRISE BARGAINING

An enterprise agreement (EBA) is a legally binding agreement between management and employees negotiated by union members. 

EQUAL PAY

Together, over the last two years, we have made gains to lift minimum rates of pay in the modern award. The pay equity case won by HACSU and other union members was one of the biggest breakthroughs of the last 20 years.

We won a better standard of living. With our collective efforts, most workers are better off annually.

However, these gains only started the process of providing dignity to some of Australia’s lowest paid workers. There’s a lot more to do to ensure our wages are fair and reasonable for the professional work we do.

The equal pay case lifted the ‘minimum wage’ from a low base but disability support workers should not be reliant on the minimum. We want to bargain improvements above the minimum standards. 

THE NDIS

The NDIS is a historic policy reform, equal to Medicare and compulsory Superannuation, which will ensure the most disadvantaged Australians receive support no matter how they acquire their disability.

The insurance-style model will allow people with a disability, and their families, to have control over the care and support they need. This, in turn will create a huge new market in disability services which will require more skilled disability workers.

However, to ensure the sector becomes an industry of choice for new workers, we will need to ensure worker’s rights are protected, and wages are above the minimum in order to retain experienced workers.

These benefits need to cover the whole workforce, including disability support workers, case managers, residential workers and day and recreational program workers. 

OUR CLAIM

Our claim focuses on improving the standard of living for disability support workers, addressing recruitment and retention in the industry, and improving professional development and, therefore, the quality of care.

In the full claim is a detailed list of our claims that are designed to establish a better standard of living and a better standard of care as we go into a new era of disability services in Australia.

THE KEY FOCUS OF THE CLAIMS IS

  • Better training and professional development for members,
  • Improved wages,
  • More say over rosters,
  • Improved safety including addressing occupational violence,
  • Management listening to workers and addressing concerns generally,
  • Fairer disciplinary processes.

View or download a full copy of the claim here. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

 

  • Sign up your work colleagues to join the campaign. The more members, the more bargaining strength and the better the EBA outcome.
  • Send our “Value Us Yooralla” postcard.
  • Get a “Value Us Yooralla” sticker.
  • Join HACSU and get involved! Click here to read more about member benefits, click here to join today!
HACSU seeks opportunities to deliver the following objectives –
  • Employment conditions are conducive to providing quality care for residents.
  • Supportive employment culture – respecting and rewarding staff.
  • Industry-leading employment standards that highlight Yooralla as an employer of choice.
  • Greater capacity to attract and retain staff with the appropriate skills, knowledge and values.
  • Continuity of care and support for clients.
LATEST CAMPAIGN NEWS!

Latest Newsletter

Download this notice as a PDF here to print and put up on your workplace noticeboard.

Yooralla management has advised HACSU that they are ceasing negotiations on the DSW EBA and will ask staff to vote on a new agreement shortly.

HACSU Members Fight for a Better EBA

Following Yooralla’s proposed agreement in May this year, HACSU members identified several significant concerns. Thanks to the strong and ongoing campaigning of HACSU members, we have managed to achieve many improvements, including:

  • Keeping 10% shift allowances for shifts finishing between 6 pm and 8 pm, for Mon to Fri only.
  • Reimbursement of first aid refresher costs, up to $200
  • Above minimum pay increases up to 2.75% p.a.
  • Improvements in the breaks between shifts requirements

Disability Support Workers to lose out;
Not Good Enough, Yooralla! – Vote NO
HACSU has worked very hard to progress all matters and ensure no Yooralla staff lose out through the new EBA. However, several matters remain which are not acceptable:

  • Cuts to Shift Allowance - Shift allowances will be cut on weekends – any shift that finishes between 6 pm and 8 pm on a Saturday or Sunday will lose the 10% shift allowance. This will mean some workers’ take home pay will be cut.
  • No Consultation - Yooralla refuse to agree to consult with your Union around major change. The Disability sector is undergoing considerable change with the NDIS and now it is more important than ever that you have voice through your Union.
  • Personal Leave Cut -- new staff will only receive 15 days of personal leave; this will undermine hard won conditions for disability support workers, particularly given the high level of exposure to transmittable illness in disability.

**HACSU will provide members with a complete analysis of the wins and losses in the proposed EBA when we have received the final version from Yooralla
 
For these reasons HACSU cannot endorse the proposed EBA and in the upcoming vote HACSU is recommending all members -
VOTE NO


Please share this information with any of your colleagues who aren’t yet HACSU members and ask them to JOIN our campaign for decent conditions and for Yooralla to Value Us.