Yooralla's commitment to wage equity for Supported Employees
We are committed to achieve wage equity for our Supported Employees in the next three years, and to support people with disability to explore their employment options.
Yooralla and our Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) were featured on ABC News on Sunday 29 September, in a story by ABC National Disability Affairs Reporter, Nastasia ‘Nas’ Campanella.
The story focused on progress towards enacting one of the key recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission (DRC) on transforming Australian Disability Enterprises and eliminating sub-minimum wages for people with disability by 2034.
Yooralla are committed to achieve wage equity for our Supported Employees in the next three years, and to support people with disability to explore their employment options. We’ve established programs to help identify goals and choices and supports, including on the job, to achieve meaningful and sustainable jobs in open employment settings.
Our current and future work in the employment space has been and will be developed in partnership with our client and family advisory committee and approved by our Board, whose membership includes people with disability and family members of people with intellectual disability.
Work to achieve wage equity has already commenced, with Supported Employees across four of Yooralla’s ADEs locations receiving at least $6 per hour as of 1 July 2024, double the minimum rate currently allowed.
The first wage increase is the first step to bringing all workers up to modern award minimum wages over the next three years.
Davis Stokes has worked as a Supported Employee at Yooralla’s Seymour ADE, for 14 years. In the ABC feature, Davis said that for him, while having this job is about more than money, ultimately, those who work at ADEs should be paid better.
"They're doing the same job as everyone else so they should be paid the same," he said.
Media contact:
Julia Le Hunt
marcoms@yooralla.com.au
03 9633 6912