Disabled $1-an-hour workers win $100m compensation payout

DISABLED workers who were exploited and paid as little as 99 cents-an-hour will now share in $100 million compensation.

Disability advocate Kairsty Wilson helped stare down a scare campaign over the issue.

DISABLED workers who were exploited and paid as little as 99 cents-an-hour will now share in $100 million compensation.

Up to 10,000 intellectually disabled workers from across the country will share in the massive windfall after it was signed off by the Federal Court today.

The workers launched a class action against the Commonwealth of Australia in 2013, alleging that workers at Australian Disability Enterprises had been underpaid in breach of disability discrimination laws.

A settlement was reached last year but has been subject to court approval.

“This brings to an end a very long-running battle,” Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Josh Bornstein said.

“It’s been a David and Goliath battle ... and the most unusual battle I’ve ever been involved with.”

Maurice Blackburn, on behalf of the workers, argued the assessment tool used to set the wages of workers at Australian Disability Enterprises discriminated against people with intellectual disabilities.

There are more than 300 Australian Disability Enterprises, formerly known as sheltered workshops, employing around 20,000 disabled people in work including packaging, manufacturing and cleaning.

The underpayment was happening despite a Federal Court ruling in another case in 2012 which found the Business Services Wage Assessment Tool (BSWAT) was discriminatory and contravened the Disability Discrimination Act.

Disability advocate Kairsty Wilson said some government-funded disability enterprises had opposed the class action and instigated a scare campaign which claimed workers would lose their jobs.

“(But) the viability of the Australian Disability Enterprises is not an issue at all,” she told reporters.

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with AAP

Originally published as Disabled $1-an-hour workers win $100m compensation payout