QAMH supports the intent of addressing gender-based undervaluation and ensuring fair pay across the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS). However, we are deeply concerned that the Fair Work Commission’s draft determination will create inequities, destabilise organisations, and erode workforce retention if not urgently revised. It advantages existing staff while disadvantaging new entrants, removes structured pay progression, fails to recognise the critical role of lived experience, and introduces significant cost pressures without any matching uplift in government funding.
To ensure changes are fair, sustainable, and reflective of the realities of community mental health work, QAMH recommends the Commission:
- Revise translation arrangements to prevent inequities between existing staff and new entrants, and to maintain appropriate supervisory differentials.
- Restore meaningful incremental pay progression to recognise experience and support long-term retention.
- Align classifications with the complexity and responsibility of roles, not solely qualifications or tenure and formally recognise lived experience as a distinct and valued source of expertise in community mental health.
- Review relativities to ensure frontline and lived experience roles are valued appropriately alongside professional roles.
- Ensure implementation of the determination is accompanied by commensurate increases in government funding to sustain services and workforce capacity.
Read Our Submission Here >
