WACOSS and Community Employers WA wrote to the Treasurer this week raising the risk to services for vulnerable and disadvantage West Australians as a result of steeply increased wage costs not being including in the indexation of Government contracts.
With the Equal Remuneration Order and recent Minimum Wage increases driving up costs, the 0.83% indexation on offer from the WA Government is clearly inadequate.
The letter quoted the recent report from Curtin Not-for-profit Institute which reported that a majority of survey organisations were ‘likely to reduce output, reduce quality, reduce quantity, stop providing services, and/or fund the extra expense from limited existing assets’ as a result of the ERO.
The letter, jointly signed by WACOSS CEO Louise Giolitto and CEWA Executive Director John Bouffler, called for an interim allocation to be made in the September Budget and for Treasury to work with WACOSS and CEWA to arrive at a true cost figure to be included in forward estimates in the next budget.
The letter also sought a meeting with the Treasurer to discuss both the interim response and the longer-term approach.
To view the whole letter, click here.
Organisations directly affected by the ERO, the Minimum Wage decisions and the limited indexation are encouraged to write their own letters to the Treasurer and relevant Ministers, with a particular focus on which services will be compromised and how vulnerable West Australians will be further disadvantaged if full indexation is not applied to existing contracts.
