STAFF ROTATION BETWEEN WORK LOCATIONS AND CONTRACTS

Changes are occurring rapidly in the disability and aged care sectors because of the abuse revelations coming out of The Disability Royal Commission and Aged Care reviews.

Many insurance companies are refusing cover in abuse areas like sexual abuse unless strict conditions are agreed to by the organisation.

Organisations who are not able to purchase cover for abuse areas may not be able to continue operating and providing disability support services.

NWSS has managed to get the required policies which will allow us to operate and provide our existing services.  However, one of the insurance policy conditions that we are required to agree to is regular rotation of staff between work locations and contracts as a safeguard measure against abuse.

NWSS WILL REGULARLY ROTATE STAFF BETWEEN WORK LOCATIONS AND CONTRACTS

Given the insurance requirements we are required to implement rosters that regularly rotate staff between work locations and contracts.  We will try to minimise the disruption to current rosters, but we will need to make some changes to meet this new requirement.

We will provide all workers with four (4) weeks’ notice of a change to our rosters.  Changes will commence from November 1, 2023.

A rotating staff model creates an enormous workload for roster coordinators.

This will not mean a reduction in hours across the rosters.  We are still delivering the same level of service.  NWSS will maintain current hours for all staff with permanent lines.

However, we cannot guarantee that the same configuration of shifts will be worked by every employee due to the requirement to rotate across locations and contracts.

Moving forward, NWSS will not be able to give any guarantees on shifts that attract penalty rates, and we will have limited capacity to negotiate preferred shifts, work locations and contracts.

Employees will still be free to take up shifts offered from the relief pool.

I need to stress that this is a change we need to make to the organisation to continue to operate.  This is not a change we had planned to make, and we hope to minimise the impact on staff where possible.  I must stress that this is a survival strategy for the organisation to keep up with the demands of insurance companies to get the required policies we need to deliver quality services to clients.

Neal Rodwell — General Manager — North West Support Services — 0418 140 000