Unions are banding together for the first day of their landmark Fair Work Commission case that aims to stamp out wage theft of NDIS workers.
The proceedings brought on by the ASU, AWU, HSU and UWU will kick off on Tuesday, with the unions fighting to stop NDIS providers from misclassifying their staff as home care workers, which has a lower award rate, and pocketing the difference of as much as $9 per hour.
To achieve this, the unions are seeking to amend the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 to specify that workers providing NDIS-funded services must be properly classified - and therefore properly paid - as social and community services employees.
"We can no longer sustain a "whack-a-mole" approach to deal with dodgy providers in the NDIS," Angus McFarland, ASU NSW/ACT secretary and national union spokesperson for the campaign said.
"There are too many rorts and workers being ripped off. We are taking action in the Fair Work Commission to ban this practice once and for all.
"All employers in the NDIS are funded by the government to pay their workers properly at the correct award rates. But we estimate up to 10 per cent of providers are ripping off workers, paying them up to $9 less an hour, despite receiving money from the taxpayer to pay them properly. Where is this money going? Simply into the pockets of dodgy providers. It's got to end.
"This case is not about a wage rise and it's not about additional funding – it's about workers getting paid correctly. It's about disability support workers getting the minimum award rates that are already funded in the NDIA pricing framework. It's about stopping ripoffs and rorts of the system.
"We'll be calling on the Albanese Government to support us in stamping out wage theft in the NDIS. We are inviting all Labor MPs to a briefing this week on the importance of this case to clean up the NDIS and ensure dedicated disability support workers are paid properly."
