Rally for paid domestic violence leave to be a universal right for all workers - Thursday, October 13th
Join the rally next Thursday 12.30pm at NSW Parliament House for paid domestic violence leave for all workers! RSVP here!
We need you to help put the pressure on Mike Baird to join our call for universal access to paid domestic violence leave. Later this year the Prime Minister will be meeting with all state Premiers and we want paid domestic violence leave for all workers to be on the agenda!
We need to put the pressure on NSW Premier Mike Baird to support our call. Unions NSW - the peak body for all unions - is organising a rally outside NSW Parliament House at 12.30pm on Thursday, October 13th. Save the date now and join us to rally for safe and supportive workplaces for victims of domestic violence.
RSVP to the rally here. Bring along your colleagues, family, friends, and clients. You can read more about the campaign and why this issue is so important by downloading a fact sheet here.
NSW Government announces minimum standards to be introduced for child protection workers
Last week the NSW Government announced that it is going to introduce "minimum standards" for child protection workers. There is little to no detail about how the minimum standards for child protection workers will work - what they will be, how they will be implemented, how it will affect the thousands of child protection workers who do the right thing every day and work tirelessly to support vulnerable young people.
We will be calling a meeting for all members in Child Protection services to discuss this news and share your ideas, concerns, questions and views on what the minimum standards should be for workers in child protection. Last week I gave evidence at a NSW Upper House Inquiry into Child Protection, along with Lyn Bevington our Branch Vice President and Blue Mountains community worker.
Click here to read a summary of what we called for in the Inquiry hearing - an end competitive tendering and ban for-profit providers in out of home care, and also for greater support for workforce training, development and portable long service leave for all community sector workers.
The NDIS is coming - do you want to make it the best it can be? Get on board the ASU campaign!
Does your employer want the NDIS to be the best it can be for people with disability and the workers who support them every day? It’s time to take our NDIS campaign demands directly to service providers – will your employer support secure jobs, decent wages and conditions, professional standards and career paths, and better consultation at work?
Click here to get involved in the campaign by organising a union meeting in your workplace about the NDIS.
Hundreds of ASU members and activists have signed up to be part of the ASU campaign to make the NDIS the best it can be. So far we have surveyed members and held national delegate summits to develop our campaign demands, and we have now lobbied politicians, taken our issues up with the NDIA and secured the support of People with Disability Australia for our campaign.
The ASU Disability Services Sub Division, led by House with No Steps delegate Kerry Fairlie, recently met and endorsed a plan to now call on employers to back our campaign.
Scott Morrison's Productivity Commission opens the door to multinational for-profit providers in family services, child protection, homelessness, domestic violence, mental health and drug and alcohol services
Family and community services like domestic violence services, mental health, and homelessness services are about to be opened up to multinational for-profit corporations to profit from if Scott Morrison gets his way!
On the eve of the last Federal Election, and after public pressure from ASU members, Scott Morrison ruled out allowing providers to profit from the provision of essential community services like homelessness and domestic violence services. But then just a week ago Scott Morrison's Productivity Commission inquiry handed down its initial report - and the report did not rule out allowing for-profit providers to tender for these types of community services funding. We cannot let this go unchallenged.
Read more about the report here. Their final recommendations are expected mid next year – so we need you to help get the message out to local MPs about why for-profit providers should not be able to make money from community services!
Click here to get on board the campaign and help with raising our message with local MPs around the country.
Defending our minimum Award conditions from attack by employers
Employers are looking to attack our conditions – reducing sleepovers and changing on-call. The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award sets out the minimum conditions for work in our sector. It is currently under review by the Fair Work Commission and employers are arguing for reducing sleepover entitlements, changing how on-call works and making it easier to change and cut hours for part-time workers.
We are fighting to ensure that our Award conditions go forward, not backwards.
We need members to tell their stories about why good sleepover and on-call provisions are important for safe workplaces, work / life balance, and quality services.
Spotlight on enterprise bargaining: Mission Australia members organise to win
Around the country members at Mission Australia are currently voting to endorse a new enterprise agreement that will see considerable improvements in wages and conditions at Mission Australia. This is after months of successful campaigning by members in their workplaces to send a strong message to Mission Australia management that ASU members want to be treated with respect and have improvements in their conditions at work.
The new agreement at Mission Australia will include improved classifications, domestic violence leave, improved sleepover provisions, special allowances for remote and regional workers and much more! Congratulations to all members at Mission Australia for your successful campaign - in particular, the ASU delegate bargaining team for taking the argument right up to management in negotiations.
Members at New Horizons, the Benevolent Society, Challenge Community Services, Amnesty International and Get Up! are also in the process of bargaining for better wages and conditions with their employers. When members stand together, build a strong and active union in their workplaces, you can win!
Marriage Equality Now - no harmful plebiscite - rally and ASU forum in October
A few years ago ASU members overwhelmingly voted to support marriage equality, but we must fight for equality with dignity and not have to have a divisive plebiscite that will create unsafe workplaces for LGBTIQ workers. Not only is a plebiscite a waste of money (money that could be spent on other things like homelessness or domestic violence services) but it will also foster harmful and hurtful debate that could cost lives.
On October 8th there is a rally at Sydney Town Hall to say Marriage Equality Now - No Plebiscite, come along and be part of the ASU contingent calling for equality with dignity. RSVP here.
The ASU Policy, Advocacy, and Campaigning Sub Division is also hosting a forum open to all members about the fight for marriage equality on October 17th. The event is being kindly co-hosted by members at GetUp! and will include speakers from Australians for Marriage Equality including the campaign director for marriage equality in Ireland to share his perspectives on the dangers and risks of a divisive public vote.
Register your interest here to attend and more details will follow.
Your job, your career - we want to know what you think about the future of work in community and disability services
All members in community and disability services are automatically members of the Australian College of Community and Disability Practitioners (the ACCDP) that your union has established to give workers a stronger voice in setting the professional standards in our sector.
We will be asking all members to complete a survey to tell us what you think about the qualifications you have (whether they are relevant to your work and the people you support), and what qualifications and skills you would like to develop.
We know ASU members are highly skilled professional workers, so we want to make sure that members are driving the future of qualifications for our sector. This will be an important national survey that will inform how we can campaign for better training and careers for all workers in community and disability services.
