Disability support workers are demanding the National Disability Insurance Agency take responsibility and immediately crackdown on dodgy providers who rip them off.
The Australian Services Union estimates that up to one in ten NDIS providers are underpaying their support workers by classifying them at lower award rates, and pocketing the difference of up to $9 per hour from taxpayer funds allocated for NDIS participants.
Workers will protest outside of the NDIA office at Centennial Place, 280-300 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills on Wednesday 21 August from 1.45pm.
The protest comes as the federal government works to pass a bill this week to ensure the NDIS remains sustainable.
The ASU and other unions launched Fair Work Commission proceedings in June to amend the SCHADS award in a bid to close the loophole but the ASU said the NDIA could immediately stamp out wage theft through audits and compliance measures.
“The National Disability Insurance Agency is sitting on its hands when it comes to stamping out wage theft in the NDIS and misuse of NDIS participants’ funds,” Angus McFarland, ASU NSW/ACT secretary and national union spokesperson for the campaign said.
“The NDIA is the funder of NDIS support services and is responsible for setting price limits for the supports that providers deliver, therefore it’s incumbent on the agency to ‘follow the money’ by auditing and cracking down on the dodgy providers that are ripping off dedicated workers. To rip off NDIS workers is to rip off the taxpayer and people with disability.”
For months, the agency has been sitting on an independent internal review of NDIS wage issues that echoes calls from the ASU and others in the sector urging the NDIA to take a more proactive stance by requiring providers to attest that they pay their workers properly and conducting unannounced inspections.
“The NDIA has been putting NDIS wage theft in the too hard basket for too long. Their own internal report told them to act, and they’ve done nothing about this since January,” Mr McFarland said.
“Our union is doing everything it can to close the wage theft loophole for disability support workers in the long-term by going through a lengthy Fair Work Commission process - but the NDIA could help bring staff underpayment to a halt today if it began carrying out an auditing and compliance blitz on providers.
“The federal government is working to pass its ‘Getting the NDIS Back on Track’ bill but we can’t get the NDIS back on track if dodgy providers are free to rip off workers and the taxpayer. We are protesting the NDIA to back our case and back action to end wage theft in the NDIS."
Media contact: Sofie Wainwright 0403 920 301