Thousands of frontline community and disability support workers across Australia are one step closer to receiving the most substantial pay adjustment in over a decade, as one of the nation’s largest labor organizations has launched an ambitious wage push to address long-standing underpayment and workforce retention crises in the sector.
The Australian Services Union (ASU), which counts roughly 185,000 workers across support services, transportation, tourism and information technology among its membership, is set to submit a formal claim for a 35 percent pay increase to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) this Wednesday. This marks the largest wage demand the sector has seen in 14 years, covering thousands of full-time, part-time and casual community and disability support employees.
According to ASU leaders, the 35 percent increase is far more than a simple pay adjustment—it is a long-overdue recognition of the dramatically shifting nature of support work over the past 14 years. Angus McFarland, secretary of the ASU’s New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory branch, emphasized that the job has grown far more complex, intensive and high-stakes than it was a decade and a half ago. Workers today are supporting a growing caseload of clients with far more intricate and acute needs, all while managing heavier workloads with increasingly limited resources.
“Our members are the glue that holds communities together across NSW and the ACT,” McFarland explained. “They walk alongside people through crisis, trauma, poverty and profound disadvantage, supporting them through the darkest periods of their lives. Right now, these workers are being squeezed from all sides, and their wages simply do not match the size of their workload or the impact of their work.”
Currently, the average annual salary for a full-time worker in this group sits around $AU80,000. That average drops significantly for the large cohort of part-time and casual employees, who make up a large share of this female-dominated sector. If the ASU’s claim is approved by the FWC, the pay increases will be funded through a combination of state and federal government budgets.
The wage claim comes on the heels of a recent restructuring of the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award by the FWC last week, which closed a long-standing wage theft loophole in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Union leaders argue that addressing systemic underpayment is not just a win for workers—it will also fix a critical workforce crisis that is undermining service quality across the sector.
McFarland noted that the sector has long struggled with crippling staff turnover, describing it as a “leaky bucket” where workers leave in droves because they feel undervalued and undercompensated. Constant staff churn places additional unmanageable pressure on remaining employees, and costs employers significant time and money on continuous recruitment and training. If the wage increase is approved, the union projects it will boost employment numbers, improve retention, and deliver better outcomes for the communities that rely on these critical services. “Fair pay will mean secure jobs, less staff turnover, better services and stronger communities for the people of NSW and the ACT,” McFarland added.