Bargaining for your new Possability workplace agreement has been finalised and a draft agreement will go out to vote shortly.

Voting will open at 9am on 21 February and closes at noon on 24 February.

There are information sessions to be held statewide, and we encourage you to attend these.

While the wages offer isn’t as good as we had hoped for, Possability have agreed to a number of improvements to your working conditions, which are as good as we are likely to get considering the current NDIS funding model. So, your bargaining team would recommend you vote “yes” on this agreement.

Here are the main improvements in your agreement:

Wage increase

• 3% or Award increase, whichever is higher in each year

Staffing and workloads

• There is a new clause that outlines Possability’s commitment to staffing and workloads including considerations of work/life balance, staffing levels, allocation of work and reasonable overtime.

Sleepover allowance

• Sleepovers worked on any night Sunday to Thursday inclusive will be paid an allowance of $90.00 per sleepover, and any sleepovers worked on Friday or Saturday nights are paid an allowance of $110.00 per sleepover. This is in recognition of the impact Friday and Saturday night sleepovers have on workers’ personal life.

Sleepover payment during periods of annual leave

• If a full-time or part-time employee commits to an annual leave plan with the employer by no later than 31 August each year, and that leave plan uses up all of the annual leave which the employee would have accrued in the period 1 July to 30 June of the following year, then on each occasion when the employee takes annual leave in accordance with that agreed plan they will receive payment for any sleepovers that they would have worked had it not been for them being on leave.

• You can opt in and out of this process from year to year and are under no obligation to participate.

• You only need to take the annual leave that would have accrued in the financial year, meaning any other annual leave they have already accrued is not impacted and is still available for them to take as and when they wish – noting that any annual leave taken outside the approved plan will not attract the sleepover allowance payment.

Travelling and use of private vehicles

• The mileage rate has been raised from $0.78 per kilometre to $0.95 per kilometre if you’re approved to use their own vehicle and the client is funded for travel at that rate.

Vehicle interior cleaning

• A new clause explaining what you can expect if your vehicle interior is made foul by a client when transporting them.

Vehicle damage

• A new clause explaining what you can expect if your vehicle is damaged by a client when transporting them.

Communicable disease allowance

• If at any time throughout the duration of this agreement, a funding body expressly and purposely provides funding to the employer in recognition of employees who are required to provide support and other services to clients in a workplace where there has been a communicable disease outbreak, then Possability will pass on that payment to employees.

Personal/carer’s leave

• Full-time and part-time employees with less than 5 years of service who have exhausted their personal leave accruals can make an application to the CEO for up to a further 5 days of paid leave to assist them at a time when they have not been with the organisation for a particularly long time and therefore don’t have a large accrual of personal leave to draw on.

Vaccinations

• Support will be provided to employees who are required to receive vaccinations for the purpose of their employment.

Special emergency leave

• Family and domestic violence support has been extended to 20 paid days per financial year, and the overall special emergency leave provision has been extended to 20 paid days and 20 unpaid days per financial year.

• A specific provision is added to support First Nations employees with their cultural obligations and maintaining their relationship to Country. Support has been added for situations of pregnancy loss and reproductive health and wellbeing.

Time of taking annual leave

• Possability will provide a response to an annual leave request within 14 days of the request being received so as to allow you to finalise any travel plans and other arrangements in a timely manner.

If you have any questions about your agreement, please contact HACSUassist at assist@hacsu.org.au or on 1300 880 032.