Disability provider hit by strikes as funding gap bites

Workers have walked off the job at Victoria’s largest disability housing provider, despite other operators brokering new workplace deals to reign in costs while trying to secure the homes for hundreds of vulnerable residents.

Staff at 35 Scope homes walked off the job on Friday under in an escalation of protected industrial action. The Health and Community Services Union also rallied at the disability provider’s Hawthorn headquarters.

Three of the other private providers charged with operating Victoria’s government-owned supported independent living (SIL) services have recently negotiated new pay deals to close a funding gap that threatens the homes of almost 2000 disabled residents, but Scope has yet to reach an agreement.

More than 80 of the 549 SIL homes transferred by the state government to five private disability housing providers have already closed, and the future of the remaining services has been in doubt since the government subsidies ended on January 1 and the National Disability Insurance Agency refused to cover the resulting funding shortfall.

In a statement to The Age , Scope said it was continuing to negotiate with employees, aiming to strike a deal that will put workers at its government-owned homes on the same agreement as those working at all other services.

Scope has also begun selling off its fleet of specialist vehicles and asking its 1300 disabled residents to fund taxis other services from their NDIS allocations, under a new transport plan it says brings it into line with the wider sector.

“The enterprise agreement, funding discussions regarding Victorian government-owned supported independent living homes, and transport arrangements are distinct issues, but each reflects the broader challenge of delivering sustainable, high-quality disability services in a changing funding and NDIS environment,” the Scope statement said.

“More broadly, Scope continues to advocate for pricing arrangements that would more appropriately reflect the support needs of people with complex disability and the cost of delivering these high-quality services.”

HACSU Victorian branch secretary Paul Healey accused Scope of undermining workers and disabled residents, calling on the federal and state government to urgently intervene before more homes were closed.

“This is the same company that has shut approximately 45 houses and are proposing to remove all of the transport options for people with disability who live in their group homes...