The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has announced that overtime, weekend and public holiday penalty rates for casual disability and aged care workers will rise. The decision to vary the rate of pay in the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010, (SCHADS) will commence in full on July 1, 2020.
The Full Bench said the deferral until July 1 provides a reasonable time period for enterprises affected to seek a compensatory change in funding arrangements, or more specifically, NDIS pricing restrictions. Also, to consider or implement the substitution of casual employees for permanent full time and part time employees. Proposals by some interested parties for a longer transitional period were rejected by the Commission.
In the course of the proceedings, the Commission undertook a survey of industry employers and found that around 75 per cent had casual employees working on Saturdays, while 70 per cent worked on Sundays.
Casual employment in enterprises covered by the SCHADS Award in the Australian Disability Workforce Report noted that 48 per cent of disability support workers are permanent (full or part time) and 46 per cent are casual. Also, that the trend to casualisation is more prevalent in small and medium organisations and absent in larger organisations.