Mercy Community - Show Employee's the Money: Uncovering Union Members Wages and Entitlements

We know that many of our Union members at Mercy Community have been underpaid, undervalued, and grappling with uncertainty, while anxiously awaiting back payment of owed wages and entitlements, all while facing the challenges of redundancy and role changes.

Our Union is by your side, continuing to advocate for you on your behalf to secure your rightful wages and entitlements. That’s why we have asked Mercy Community to make an immediate payment of $1000 to every impacted employee as a sign of good faith. This will ensure members receive some of the money owed, while Mercy undertakes a review of unpaid wages. So far Mercy has refused to commit.

Important Remediation Update:

Our Union has had enough of Mercy’s vague communication and continual shifting of the goal posts for when it plans to backpay employees their rightful entitlements. Our Union has taken action by meeting with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) who are currently investigating Mercy. The Fair Work Ombudsman has made their position clear: There is no reason why Mercy Community cannot commence back payments to employees immediately! So where is the money you owe, Mercy?

Our Union has written to CEO Justin Lorenz and we have proposed two options:

1. Initiate immediate payments to employees or;
2. If Mercy genuinely require further time to quantify the underpayment, they must provide a clear explanation for the delay and issue a good faith payment of $1000 to affected employees immediately.

We have also asked Mercy to re-affirm their position that they will not claw back overpayments from employees, which was committed to by Mercy in 2022.

Our members have exercised exceptional patience in this matter and deserve clear answers and movement on this important matter.

If you are a SHADS Employee:

Our discussion with the FWO was productive. We are confident that the FWO are actively investigating Mercy and are certainly not holding up this process for employees as Mercy has asserted. The FWO are seeking to speak with Mercy employees directly regarding this matter. It is important that they speak with workers on the ground to fully comprehend the situation. If you are interested in speaking to the FWO (which you can do anonymously), please advise us through here: Questions Register - Mercy Community Workers (google.com).

If you are an Agreement Employee:

We know that many employees who are employed under the Mercy Family Services Enterprise Agreement 2011 and Mercy Disability Services Enterprise Agreement 2010 have concerns that they have been underpaid, and that this is not being investigated by Mercy.

These concerns include:

• Incorrect payments for on-call;
• Incorrect payments for allowances;
• Incorrect application of TOIL;
• Rostering breaches; and
• Incorrect payments for overtime.

We have asked Mercy to conduct an audit of this. Additionally, the FWO are interested in these important compliancy issues. If you are interested in speaking to the FWO (which you can do anonymously), please advise us through here: Questions Register - Mercy Community Workers (google.com)

Psychosocial Health:

Our Union has raised with Mercy its obligations on workplace health and safety during this difficult period of time. We are concerned that Mercy’s lack of communication, withholding owed wages and entitlements, while protracting redundancy timeframes is resulting in significant psychosocial concerns for our members. We know that some members are experiencing poor mental health. If you require support, you can find services here: Mental Healthy Flyer

Be assured, your Union will continue to be by your side as we pursue these matters.

If you know of a colleague who is not yet a member, let them know they can join here.