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Providers and support workers from across the disability services sector have presented a united front in Parliament to lobby to government for a pay rise.
The National Secretary of the Health Services Union, Lloyd Williams, voiced his concerns for the sector.
If we don't provide disability support workers with better pay and conditions, we will not be able to attract workers to the sector and we won't be able to retain those…that are experienced.
While the Albanese Government has raised the wages of aged care workers and childcare workers, disability support workers continue to miss out.
“Providers tell us that they are unable to bargain above the minimum award because the funding simply does not allow them to, and the funding they receive barely covers the minimum award as it is,” Mr Williams says.
Sam is a residential supervisor based in Victoria. He says his job is challenging but rewarding.
You're on your first week. You're probably going to have to support someone with schizophrenia, someone else who's suffered a traumatic brain injury, and someone else with an intellectual disability but you won't have any training specific to support them.
Sam says with a troubling shift, it would be expected workers would debrief with a supervisor, however the funding isn't there for supervisors to supervise their staff appropriately.
“We’re asking the government to ensure that training is funded, to ensure the complex job we do is valued appropriately.”
John, a support worker from Hobart, says the job involves much more than simply taking care of people with disability.
We're nursing, we're counselling, we're admin, we're accounting. We just throw a whole handful of skills in there that we're just not getting rewarded for.
“It's time to now properly reward disability support workers for the difference they make in people's lives,” John states.
Disability support workers are asking for a $5 per hour pay rise, which will cost much the government just under 1 billion over the next three years. The wage increase will focus on key providers who provide complex supports for people with a disability.