Real wages for real work: success!

Around the country there are more than 300 Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) – formerly known as sheltered workshops – employing around 20,000 people with disability. Some employers chose to calculate the wages of people with disability using a scheme which resulted in a very poor return on work, despite people with disability contributing significantly to meeting Australia’s packaging, manufacturing and cleaning needs. Now around 8000 Australians with disability will be paid for the wages they should have received. This is due to successful legal claims, policy influence strategies and a class action undertaken by workers, their families and carers, community organisations AED Legal Centre (AED Legal) and People with Disability Australia (PwDA) and law firm Maurice Blackburn. The Reichstein Foundation has been a proud supporter of AED Legal and PwDA in their work to secure a fairer deal for people with disability through our grants in the area of reducing inequality.