Dear Members
The Fair Work Commission decision to raise the minimum wage by 3.3% has caught us all by surprise. Attached is some preliminary advice about the decision from Employer Assist. Further advice about the detail of flow-on effects for the SCHADS Award will be available soon and we will provide that to Members as soon as we get it.
And in other news about wage pressures, WACOSS and Community Employers WA released the report ‘The 2012 Equal Remuneration Order: Sustainability Impacts on Human Services Delivery in Western Australia’ produced by the Curtin Not-for-profit Institute with funding from Lotterywest. Following feedback from the launch WACOSS and CEWA have revised the ‘Industry Response’ section of the report and strengthened our recommendations. Find the new version of the ERO report here and the National Minimum Wage here.
We are now working on the campaign to ensure the impact of the ERO and Minimum Wage case increases on services is kept to a minimum. To do this we need examples of services that are at risk, particularly as result of unfunded ERO wage increases, and examples of the ways in which individual people will be affected by reduction in quality or quantity of services.
We also need to gather examples of the inconsistencies in application of compensation to meet ERO obligations, both in State and Federal contracts. Please send any examples or case studies to John Bouffler at CEWA at [email protected] or Stuart Reid at [email protected].
