News

Friday, 4 September 2020

Northcott plans to slash Disability Support Worker wages by $9 an hour


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On Monday, 31 August 2020, the CPSU NSW attended the first bargaining meeting where all bargaining representatives were present. This included the Health Services Union and the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association.

Northcott tabled its proposal for the Agreement, rejecting the majority of the CPSU NSW log of claims. You can review Northcott’s response to the CPSU NSW log of claims HERE.

Most significantly, despite Northcott’s $15.1 million profit in 2018-2019, it has refused to have both transferred and non-transferred Disability Support Worker (DSW) salaries to be that of the Copied State Award.

Instead, of increasing all DSWs’ salaries, as the CPSU NSW proposed, Northcott has decided to propose the lowest common denominator, click HERE to see its proposal. Northcott’s current offer will slash transferred DSW salaries by up to $9 an hour. This reduction will not be mitigated by a so-called ‘one-off bonus’ of three weeks’ salary.

DSWs, both transferred and non-transferred, are worth every cent of the salary the CPSU NSW is seeking.

It is unclear what salary Northcott is proposing for employees who were not DSWs on transfer. For those members who are on the Northcott Enterprise Agreement and are not DSWs, the proposal is for a two per cent increase over the life of the Agreement.

Salary packaging will be available, something which Northcott has refused to offer transferred staff despite tax legislation already making it possible.

On top of pay cuts, Northcott’s position is not to incorporate conditions such as the rostering principles in the Agreement. Northcott has not provided any evidence of how the conditions contained in the Copied State Award are not suitable in an NDIS environment.

We understand that Northcott, in recent staff communication, quoted the CPSU NSW to demonstrate an apparent recognition that the Copied State Award salaries were transitional and would only be in place for a couple of years. Yes, the CPSU NSW recognises the conditions under the Copied State Award were applicable when members were public servants. However, the insinuation that the union agrees the salaries would need to change is completely false; the CPSU NSW will continue to fight for both your wages and conditions.

Future meetings

The CPSU NSW will continue to bargain in good faith with Northcott, with further meetings to occur over the coming weeks. The structure of those bargaining meetings is yet to be confirmed, Northcott is proposing to meet individually with the bargaining representatives, something the CPSU NSW opposes.

In the meantime, we ask members to review Northcott’s response to the CPSU NSW log of claim and give us your feedback. You can do that through either by contacting a member of the CPSU NSW bargaining team or a CPSU NSW Organiser on 1300 772 679 or by email:

Cora Sarmiento
Tony Hay
Ian Little

If you have any questions or feedback contact 1300 772 679 or .

CPSU NSW bargaining team

John Williams (DSW)
Faith Dent (DSW)
Michelle Herbert (DSW)
Trevor Coughran (DSW)
Jessica Moore (Industrial Officer)