‘Disability leave’ for all in ACTU’s brave new world of work
Aug 11, 2018 20:50:06 GMT 7
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‘Disability leave’ for all in ACTU’s brave new world of work
GRACE COLLIERY
2:00AM AUGUST 11, 2018
Here is a little snippet for you, one unlikely to prove entirely uplifting. Between now and 2021, it is estimated that one in five of all new jobs created in Australia will be related to our National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The ACTU, at its recent congress, released a policy document that says that when the NDIS is fully operational, it “is intended to provide services to 460,000 people, around 2 per cent of the population”. Those numbers sound about right, surely — 2 per cent of our population is disabled to the extent they need funded support to assist their dignified participation in life, work and society.
Unfortunately, those numbers are not right at all. According to the ACTU, they are woefully inadequate. Apparently, after all the billions that will be spent on the NDIS and all the new jobs are created, still “the majority of people with disability will not be entitled to NDIS support”.
This is because, according to the policy document, “almost one in five working age Australians has a disability”.
Disabilities come in all forms, and can be acquired via “psychosocial hazards”. We can find ourselves struck down with “primary and secondary psychological injuries (for example, workplace stress, gendered violence, fatigue, violence, and bullying)”. Further, “modern working arrangements” such as “outsourcing, privatisation, corporatisation and competitive tendering of previously stable full-time jobs” can “create a heightened exposure to psychosocial hazards”.
The answer to all this is fairly clear, according to the unions’ policy agenda.
First, we need “disability leave”. This is a new entitlement, in addition to sick and annual leave. It is “paid leave for activities inherently associated with a worker’s disability, for example to attend physical therapy or rehabilitation sessions”. “In particular”, the ACTU says, workers with disability “should not be required to take annual leave or sick leave to attend NDIS planning meetings”, and it will develop a “discussion paper for consultation” about “a minimum entitlement to disability leave in Australia”.
Just imagine what the future might hold: just under one in five workers categorised and registered as disabled, and all applying for paid disability leave so they can have therapy or whatnot and attend NDIS planning meetings.
If almost one in five working Australians is disabled and needs support then surely two in five workers will be needed to work in disability-related jobs to provide this support.
The ACTU says the unions must “play a central role in the development” of Australia’s disability sector, which sounds as though it will be gargantuan.
Its policy notes the present funding model for the NDIS is based on service delivery, where “funding follows the service user who has choice and control in the delivery of their supports”. The big problem with this, though, is the funding model is “contestable” and “risks increasing employment insecurity for the disability support workforce”.
The ACTU says the only way the almost one in five disabled workers will be able to access “quality care and support” is via a workforce that has access to “fair wages and decent working conditions”, including “career progression, attraction and retention, training and education, worker regulation and provider accreditation, and best practice disability support management”.
In particular, the policy expresses concern about the “low and capped prices of the NDIS and the negative impact they have on the wages and conditions of the disability workforce”.
The NDIS has a 2018-19 price guide for NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania that took effect on July 1. The document is complex and prices for services are capped, but the hourly rates look more than acceptable, and sometimes too generous. To help a person co-ordinate their NDIS support, a provider can charge up to $182.74 an hour for “specialist support co-ordination” to assist the “participant to connect with NDIS supports, negotiate solutions with multiple stakeholders and build capacity and resilience”.
To help with “increased social and community participation”, a provider can charge up to $57.32 an hour for “individual life skills development and training including public transport training and support, developing skills for community, social and recreational participation”. To help with “finding and keeping a job”, a provider can ask up to $182.74 an hour for a workplace assessment “to determine adjustments or modifications to the workplace or work processes to ensure employment is maintained and matches the employee’s capabilities”.
Under “improved health and wellbeing”, a provider can charge up to $148.69 for “individual advice to a participant regarding exercise required due to the impact of their disability”, and up to $182.74 an hour for “diet plan development”.
Nevertheless, the prices NDIS providers can charge are not high enough, the ACTU says. They need to ensure that “minimum industrial benchmarks are met, allow scope for bargaining above minimum industrial standards and accommodate meaningful career structures for disability support workers”, and to ensure this, “a nationally consistent disability workforce registration and accreditation scheme should be established”, comprising “pre-employment screening; mandated minimum qualifications; ongoing professional development; and worker registration”.
We sit on the cusp of an inspiring economic model, courtesy of government and the labour movement. For every five Australian workers, one will be disabled and needing support, two might be engaged in providing that support, and the other two will be doing something else, presumably productive.
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/disability-leave-for-all-in-actus-brave-new-world-of-work/news-story/aacd41a2e0206f849efb1ca700a680e2
‘Disability leave’ for all in ACTU’s brave new world of work
GRACE COLLIERY
2:00AM AUGUST 11, 2018
Here is a little snippet for you, one unlikely to prove entirely uplifting. Between now and 2021, it is estimated that one in five of all new jobs created in Australia will be related to our National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The ACTU, at its recent congress, released a policy document that says that when the NDIS is fully operational, it “is intended to provide services to 460,000 people, around 2 per cent of the population”. Those numbers sound about right, surely — 2 per cent of our population is disabled to the extent they need funded support to assist their dignified participation in life, work and society.
Unfortunately, those numbers are not right at all. According to the ACTU, they are woefully inadequate. Apparently, after all the billions that will be spent on the NDIS and all the new jobs are created, still “the majority of people with disability will not be entitled to NDIS support”.
This is because, according to the policy document, “almost one in five working age Australians has a disability”.
Disabilities come in all forms, and can be acquired via “psychosocial hazards”. We can find ourselves struck down with “primary and secondary psychological injuries (for example, workplace stress, gendered violence, fatigue, violence, and bullying)”. Further, “modern working arrangements” such as “outsourcing, privatisation, corporatisation and competitive tendering of previously stable full-time jobs” can “create a heightened exposure to psychosocial hazards”.
The answer to all this is fairly clear, according to the unions’ policy agenda.
First, we need “disability leave”. This is a new entitlement, in addition to sick and annual leave. It is “paid leave for activities inherently associated with a worker’s disability, for example to attend physical therapy or rehabilitation sessions”. “In particular”, the ACTU says, workers with disability “should not be required to take annual leave or sick leave to attend NDIS planning meetings”, and it will develop a “discussion paper for consultation” about “a minimum entitlement to disability leave in Australia”.
Just imagine what the future might hold: just under one in five workers categorised and registered as disabled, and all applying for paid disability leave so they can have therapy or whatnot and attend NDIS planning meetings.
If almost one in five working Australians is disabled and needs support then surely two in five workers will be needed to work in disability-related jobs to provide this support.
The ACTU says the unions must “play a central role in the development” of Australia’s disability sector, which sounds as though it will be gargantuan.
Its policy notes the present funding model for the NDIS is based on service delivery, where “funding follows the service user who has choice and control in the delivery of their supports”. The big problem with this, though, is the funding model is “contestable” and “risks increasing employment insecurity for the disability support workforce”.
The ACTU says the only way the almost one in five disabled workers will be able to access “quality care and support” is via a workforce that has access to “fair wages and decent working conditions”, including “career progression, attraction and retention, training and education, worker regulation and provider accreditation, and best practice disability support management”.
In particular, the policy expresses concern about the “low and capped prices of the NDIS and the negative impact they have on the wages and conditions of the disability workforce”.
The NDIS has a 2018-19 price guide for NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania that took effect on July 1. The document is complex and prices for services are capped, but the hourly rates look more than acceptable, and sometimes too generous. To help a person co-ordinate their NDIS support, a provider can charge up to $182.74 an hour for “specialist support co-ordination” to assist the “participant to connect with NDIS supports, negotiate solutions with multiple stakeholders and build capacity and resilience”.
To help with “increased social and community participation”, a provider can charge up to $57.32 an hour for “individual life skills development and training including public transport training and support, developing skills for community, social and recreational participation”. To help with “finding and keeping a job”, a provider can ask up to $182.74 an hour for a workplace assessment “to determine adjustments or modifications to the workplace or work processes to ensure employment is maintained and matches the employee’s capabilities”.
Under “improved health and wellbeing”, a provider can charge up to $148.69 for “individual advice to a participant regarding exercise required due to the impact of their disability”, and up to $182.74 an hour for “diet plan development”.
Nevertheless, the prices NDIS providers can charge are not high enough, the ACTU says. They need to ensure that “minimum industrial benchmarks are met, allow scope for bargaining above minimum industrial standards and accommodate meaningful career structures for disability support workers”, and to ensure this, “a nationally consistent disability workforce registration and accreditation scheme should be established”, comprising “pre-employment screening; mandated minimum qualifications; ongoing professional development; and worker registration”.
We sit on the cusp of an inspiring economic model, courtesy of government and the labour movement. For every five Australian workers, one will be disabled and needing support, two might be engaged in providing that support, and the other two will be doing something else, presumably productive.
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/disability-leave-for-all-in-actus-brave-new-world-of-work/news-story/aacd41a2e0206f849efb1ca700a680e2