A joint statement by the Australian Services Union and the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland

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Young people need and deserve high quality community based youth services staffed by professional youth workers. Unfortunately one of the most pressing challenges facing youth services in Queensland is retaining and attracting good staff.

According to the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), the Queensland community sector has a 23% staff turnover rate - significantly higher than other states. Research by the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) and Youth Interagencies across Queensland also shows that one of the most pressing challenges for community based youth services is attracting and retaining staff.

Each time a staff member leaves a community based youth service to seek better pay and conditions elsewhere young people miss out. Young people miss out because:

• They lose a vital relationship with a key advocate;
• They get no service, or a reduced service while a new worker is recruited;
• They get a lower quality service while the new staff member (if one is found) is inducted and trained; and
• Money that could be spent on expanding or improving a service is instead spent on advertising, recruiting, interviewing, training and supervising just to get the service back to its original level.

Why are so many people leaving to work for the Public Sector or leaving the industry altogether? And why are we not attracting young people to these valuable and rewarding roles within the sector?

Because pay and conditions have failed to grow at a suitable rate to entice people to the sector or reward and recognise the education, experience and dedication of the current workforce. As the cost of living increases, more and more workers have to take up work in other industries or the public sector to maintain their standard of living. Every time this happens young people miss out.

YANQ and the Australian Services Union (ASU) believe we need a way forward to lock in our current conditions while creating a vehicle to lobby funding bodies and state government for increased funding for better pay and conditions. To ensure the security of pay and conditions for the sector we cannot afford to remain stagnant and must actively campaign for better pay and conditions.

Therefore YANQ and the ASU have joined forces in an effort to establish a Multi Employer Agreement within the community youth sector and lift our working conditions.

Join the Union Now and Show Your Support.

We believe that the best way to address working conditions is through collective action. Therefore we are urging youth workers to Join the Union Now and Show Your Support. Only through joining the Union, getting active and vocal can we highlight the facts.

• Improving the pay and conditions of youth workers will improve the quality of youth services and lead to better outcomes for young people.
• Wages need to be increased for the Social & Community Sector to be competitive in the labour market.
• Current pay and conditions need to be increased to reflect our work, skills, education and experience.
• Pay and conditions need to reflect increases in workload, admin, responsibility and liability within the sector.
• Our work is essential for healthy communities.
• Our conditions are worth keeping & improving.

For further information contact:

ASU Organiser Stuart Maggs via ASU Connect on (07) 3844 5300 or via email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Web: www.asuqld.asn.au	YANQ Director Siyavash Doostkhah on (07) 3844 7713 or via email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Web: www.yanq.org.au/mea

Authorised for the ASU by David Smith Branch Secretary ASU Queensland Services Branch 32 Peel Street PO Box 3347 South Brisbane Qld 4101 Phone 3844 5300 Fax 3846 5046 www.asuqld.asn.au

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