A few of you have been in touch recently to say that you’re having issues with Life Without Barriers refusing to cover the cost of your mandatory courses in Recognising Healthy Bodies, Assisting Clients with Medication and the Online Medication Refresher for support workers.
What a lovely Christmas present to say thanks for all the hard work you do – not!
You also told us that they sent out an email recently saying that:
‘In Tasmania it is a requirement to hold current certificates for both Recognise Healthy Body Systems and Assist Clients with Medication to provide support to individuals with administration of medication as part of their support’.
It’s fine that you’re required to be up to date with your training, but what isn’t is your employer’s despicable attempt to save some quick cash.
Let’s be clear, our position is that if training is required for you to do your job (or mandatory), then you need to be paid for it by your employer.
It’s not good enough to keep you waiting until tax time to get a rebate, and we know that it’s an extra strain on many workers’ hip pockets that they can’t afford right now.
We told LWB that if they want you to complete the above training as part of your role, then it’s a cost they need to cover.
After a back and forth with them, HACSU were able to get LWB to agree to continue with the current practice to subsidise training if you are required to administer medication.
Congratulations on speaking up – it always pays to be union and say something if you’re uncertain at work!
If you’re required to administer medication and LWB does not continue to subsidise the cost, please contact us so we can keep them to their word.
There’s strength in numbers at work, and the more members we have the stronger we are. So, if you know a colleague who has not yet joined HACSU, let them know that becoming a member is now as simple as a few clicks: join.hacsu.org.au/