Shine Lawyers host hundreds of stolen wages class action workshops to encourage WA communities to register

Lawyers are travelling to more than 200 communities across the State to encourage First Nations people and their families paid little to no wages to register to be part of a class action, before the June deadline. Shine Lawyers is holding outreach sessions across the Mid West-Gascoyne to encourage Indigenous Australians to register to claim compensation after the State Government reached a settlement agreement for those who earned little to no wages between 1936 and 1972 last November. The State will pay up to $165 million to workers who were affected, or their family members, while another $15.4m is set aside for the applicants’ legal fees. More than 120 people joined the Geraldton session on Monday, January 22, and Shine says hundreds more people have signed up since beginning the outreach sessions. The sessions will continue in the Gascoyne next week as the legal team visits Exmouth, Carnarvon, Mungullah community and Denham. Solicitor Tulli Seton said Shine Lawyers was given a court order to distribute the settlement information to communities across WA to get the word out and help people register before the June 30 deadline. “Our registrations are in the thousands at this point,” she said “We just finished the Mid West sessions and we’ve had really excellent engagement and not just people coming along to the sessions and listening to the information but also staying around registering, asking questions and engaging with us. It’s been really positive and we hope to see that continue as we head into our next trip.” “We stand up and provide an information briefing for the community to help better explain the information that’s in the settlement notice because it’s all well and good to distribute those documents to communities, but there’s a bit more engagement and understanding if we’re able to give a full informational briefing about the settlement and let them know what their options are. “We sit down at the end of the session one-on-one with people and actually help them register and answer any questions they have.” The settlement remains subject to court approval. Gascoyne session times Exmouth Exmouth Community Centre, 11am-4pm on Tuesday, February 6. Carnarvon Gwoonwardu Mia, 12-5pm on Wednesday, February 7. Mungullah Community 8.30am-1.30pm, Thursday, February 8. Denham Denham Town Hall, 9am-2pm, Friday, February 9.