The Malinauskas Labor\u00a0Government face a large industrial protest, with more than 1100 Department of Human Services (DHS) workers implementing sweeping work bans with their action visible on streets from Mount Gambier to Adelaide.<\/p>\n
The disability support workers are protesting inadequate pay at a time when crushing cost of living is severely impacting their ability to provide safe support services for South Australians. The work bans include caulking hundreds DHS vans with messages including\u00a0Safe Support Services NOW!<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Malinauskas\u202fmust deliver Safe Support Services<\/em>, so workers can make their case directly to the people of South Australia.<\/p>\n DHS currently relies on agency workers to meet minimum staffing levels because there aren\u2019t enough support workers to the provide continuity of support that is needed for vulnerable South Australians.<\/p>\n The workers, who provide support services to people with disabilities, are calling on the Malinauskas government to provide secure jobs with decent wages so they can keep supporting South Australians.<\/p>\n The industrial action will include work bans across 240 houses targeted at management, with workers restricting administrative tasks, limiting communications during unpaid time, and using prominent campaign slogans on DHS vans to raise awareness.<\/p>\n Quotes attributable to Sam Bannon, United Workers Union Delegate and Disability Support Officer:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWages are not going up, and the cost of living is ever increasing. My rent has doubled, groceries have gone up by 40 per cent, and workers are being left behind. I work with families who can\u2019t afford shoes for their kids. We\u2019ve reached a crunch point. The NDIS was meant to be a system of empowerment, but we\u2019re not experiencing that on the ground because, unlike other providers, DHS isn\u2019t required to pass on the full wage funding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not asking for an increase in funding; we are asking for the funding that is allocated to our wages to be paid to us in full. We simply can\u2019t afford to work for the Malinauskas government when we are the lowest paid disability support workers in the country. Without us, there will be no DHS and that means South Australians with the most complex disabilities are left without the support they need. It\u2019s time the Malinauskas government valued workers and did the right thing by our state.\u201d<\/p>\n Background<\/strong><\/p>\n DHS charges the NDIS the price threshold, meaning they claim the maximum amount of funding which is calculated on the basis that they are paying the federal award ($34.46), yet they are paying significantly under at $30.49.<\/p>\n Approximately 1 in 5 Australians live with a disability and this industrial action underscores the urgent need for the Malinauskas government to deliver safe support services for all South Australians.<\/p>\n The actions have been carefully designed to ensure clients safety and support will not be compromised.<\/p>\n The work bans will begin at 7 am on 8 February 2025 and remain in effect until further notice.<\/p>\n ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n Media Contact:\u00a0<\/strong>1300 898 633, media@unitedworkers.org.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Malinauskas Labor\u00a0Government face a large industrial protest, with more than 1100 Department of Human Services (DHS) workers implementing sweeping work bans with their action visible on streets from Mount Gambier to Adelaide.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59935,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59927\/revisions\/59935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}