Brendan Hubbard’s severe intellectual delay means there are some things he just doesn’t do.
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He doesn’t speak, and he is missing a healthy mistrust of strangers, instead making his way through the world as though “everyone is his friend”.
But Brendan does work – a source of great satisfaction to his mother, Cathy Hubbard.
“He loves his job,” she told a crowd in Crown Street Mall on Tuesday afternoon. “He gets a lot more than money when he goes to work – he gets companionship, pride in achieving new skills, which he’s constantly doing.
“He doesn't have any pressure from his supervisors to work at any pace ... He has matured, grown in this nurturing environment.”
The Hubbards are among hundreds of llawarra families that stand to be affected by proposed changes to the wage assessment tool for workers with a disability.
The Federal government has proposed a wage tool that would see people with a disability paid according to piecework and how fast they work.
Brendan’s employer, Greenacres, is one of three major Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) in the region. The not-for-profit group would be required to pay higher wages under the proposed productivity-based waged tool and they say they will be forced to cut jobs – or even close down – if a it is introduced.
On Tuesday those affected came together in the mall – about 600 people – for a rally full of heart, peppered with cries of “my job counts!”.
“The reality for us if this tool is forced on all ADEs, the jobs that are there now will no longer be viable,” Ms Hubbard told the crowd. “That means Brendan will lose his job. He can’t compete in an open employment market. He needs this safe environment.”
Under the current pro rata wage rate, Brendan is paid just $2.96 an hour, but he remains entitled to a pension and travel allowance, meaning his gross weekly income is $612.40 a week – more than the minimum wage for equivalent hours.
Flagstaff, Greenacres and The Disability Trust are among the ADEs across Australia awaiting a decision when the issue comes before the Fair Work Commission in February.
Speaking to the Mercury, Flagstaff Group CEO Roy Rogers said the issue was coming to a head after almost three years of failed conciliation in the Fair Work Commission.
“During that time we’ve been putting other solutions up, but the affected group - AED Legal and Inclusion Australia – would no listen to us. They only want a productivity-based wage tool implanted into the award.
“They don’t know what the impact is on families and people with disabilities. They don’t mix with them, they don’t see them – they’ve got a small membership base. So we want it arbitrated. Conciliation is not going to work.
“This rally is about putting pressure on the government, on the community, to say what we’ve got is not broken. What we’ve got is good and provides the necessary work for people with disabilities.”