Social workers protected under Fair Work Act
The Federal Government and the Australian Services Union (ASU) today reached an agreement to provide further protection to social and community services workers under the new Fair Work system.
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, today announced that Under the new Fair Work system, social and community services sector workers – working in the youth, welfare and community sectors – will become covered by the Fair Work Act under a single modern award, rather than the multitude of state and federal laws, awards and instruments that currently apply.
The sector currently employs more than 200 000 employees, 87 percent of whom are women. The agreement with the ASU will ensure that recent pay rises awarded to social and community services workers in Queensland on pay equity grounds will be maintained in full when those employees transfer to the Fair Work system.
The ASU has also advised it will apply to Fair Work Australia in the near future seeking orders for similar pay increases based on pay equity grounds for social and community sector workers in the other states. This will be the first claim to be considered under the new Fair Work Act.
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