Albany disability staff in wage payback

Almost 50 employees of an Albany disability service organisation are being paid back in instalments adding up to a six figure sum in what a union has described as one of the biggest settlements of underpaid wages in WA’s history.

The Australian Services Union reached an agreement with Community Living Association Inc in June after it alleged the organisation had been underpaying 47 current and former employees going back six years. The exact amount of the settlement is confidential but the ASU confirmed it exceeded six figures.

According to a statement on the settlement, CLA admitted underpaying affected workers and apologised unconditionally.

The ASU and CLA acknowledged the underpayments arose partly from a lack of industrial relations experience on the part of CLA but CLA accepted the concerns of the affected employees should have been addressed earlier.

The organisation had since introduced changes to its governance and its organisational structure to ensure the underpayments were not repeated.

These include independent management and governance reviews, recruitment of a skills-based board and recruitment of a new chief executive.