HACSU members at Integratedliving have just fought for and won recovered wages and better conditions with the help of their union.  

You might’ve heard that IL’s accountants were forced to complete an audit of HACSU members who were underpaid their one-hour minimum engagement recently.

Now, we’ve found that calculations show an underpayment to the tune of $302,848 for 21 HACSU members – and IL will be made to pay this all back.

The underpayments are calculated based on the difference between what you should’ve been paid per engagement (one hour) and what was actually paid (less than one hour). The calculations also include penalty interest and lost superannuation.

What we’ve found is that not all members have been affected equally, and payments will be made based on the number of short shifts worked – with the biggest back payment sitting at $30,561.37 and smallest at $4861.36.

The audit also uncovered an underpayment for 24-hour extended care under the FBC Agreement – and these amounts have been included in the final calculations too.

IL say that the wage theft occurred due to their TRACCS scheduling system rostering employees for client engagements less than one hour in length, while their payroll system only paid employees for time worked. In effect, this meant there was no ‘grossing up’ of time worked to make sure you were paid for the minimum engagement each client visit.

IL will begin to make remedial payments to you shortly.

And, because of this glaring issue, we expect that IL will now correct their systems to make sure you’re paid the minimum engagement going forward – if you’re not in future, please get in touch with us so we can keep them to their word.

It’s important to note that our audit did not uncover any underpayments for Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services employees.

Extension of the Family Based Care Agreement

In another massive win, we’ve also been able to extend your Family Based Care Agreement, which was due to terminate on 7 December this year.

You told us that the FBC Agreement had a lot of benefits that needed to be saved such as your 13 weeks’ long service leave and higher wages. Because of this, we were able to apply to the FWC to extend the life of the Agreement, which will now stay in effect until 6 June 2025.

It’s only because of HACSU members like you that we were able to win this – you banded together and signed our petition to save your Agreement, and because of your resolve the FWC were forced to listen.

It’s not the four years that we hoped to get it extended by, but it’s still a powerful decision that the FWC usually doesn’t make. And it means that your existing entitlements have been saved until at least 2025.

Congratulations for always speaking up for the issues at work that matter – it pays to be union and to say something if you’re ever unsure.

If you’ve got any questions in the meantime, or you need more information, please make sure you get in touch with us at HACSUassist on 1300 880 032 or via email on assist@hacsu.org.au