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Annual Report 2019 - 2020 Marrickville Legal Centre | Annual Report 2019-2020 Marrickville Legal Centre acknowledges the Gadigal, Wangal, Guringal, Wallumedegai and Cammeraygal people of the Eora nation. They are the traditional custodians of the land on which we work. We would like to pay respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly Elders past, present and future. 2 Contents About us 4 Team MLC gets active for access to justice 33 Letter from the Chair of the Board 5 Our board 34 Letter from the Managing Principal Solicitor 7 Our staff 36 Our year at a glance 8 Our volunteers 37 Our vision and pillars 9 In memoriam 41 Strategic framework 10 Special thanks 42 Our impact 12 Financial overview 45 General Legal Service 13 Get involved 47 Family Law Service 16 Domestic & Family Violence Support Service 18 Employment Law Service 20 Migrant Employment Legal Service 22 Youth Legal Service 24 Northern Sydney Area Tenants’ Service 26 Inner West Tenants’ Advice & Advocacy Service 28 Strata Collective Sales Advocacy Service 30 3 Marrickville Legal Centre | Annual Report 2019-2020 About us Marrickville Legal Centre is a not-for-profit community legal centre. Located in Sydney’s inner west, our services extend across New South Wales. For over 40 years Marrickville Legal Centre has provided free legal services and support to the most vulnerable in our community. Knowing that some members of our community face greater difficulties accessing legal services than others, we prioritise providing access to justice to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, people with a mental illness, people with a disability, people who have experienced domestic and family violence, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, young people, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. We assist clients towards better and fairer outcomes, from what can be the most challenging and traumatic experiences of their lives. Since Marrickville Legal Centre was established in 1979, it has been imbued with a strong sense of social justice and a vision to advance the human rights of our community. That community has grown over time to include the inner-west, south-west, southern suburbs and beyond. Our key catchment encompasses over 30% of Sydney’s total population: over 1.5 million people. We also provide state- wide legal support for young people, culturally and linguistically diverse workers, and owner-occupiers of strata schemes. The spirit of #JusticeForUsAll lives in each of our staff and volunteers and through the work we do that supports the wellbeing of our clients, their families, and our broader community. 4 Letter from the Chair of the Board We have had another notable year at Marrickville Legal The problems associated with the Enterprise Agreement are Centre as we have continued to provide high quality legal not limited to direct remuneration. There are a number of support and advocacy for some of the most vulnerable clauses that increase the difficulty of managing MLC, add to members of our community. We have been able to perform our costs, and work against creating the right culture. at a high level through the dedication of excellent staff and I am pleased to say that in recent months we have the support of pro-bono partners. collaborated effectively with staff representatives - with a With the COVID-19 pandemic, the last four months of the degree of urgency – to create consensus on an Enterprise 2020 financial year brought unprecedented challenges for Agreement that preserves MLC’s future and provides more every business and individual around the world. Collectively stability. at Marrickville Legal Centre we adapted, found solutions Considering the last twelve months, our Board and put in place a response plan. Foremost in our minds acknowledges the excellent work of two particular staff was the need to safeguard the well-being of our staff and members: Managing Principal Solicitor Vasili Maroulis who clients. We successfully continued our operation and doing has faced many challenges this year and Finance Manager so, learned new ways of working especially with the use of Greg Oong who budgets for multiple programs from a collaboration technology. We found that many of us enjoy number of funding sources. working remotely, and that we can be just as productive. I am extremely grateful for the work of my Board colleagues Through the year the Board has been wrestling with the who dedicate the energy and commitment to our issues challenge of addressing our difficult financial circumstances. as they arise. They bring diverse professional backgrounds This has come about partly through reductions in our and this year we have added new members with experience funding, certain programs that will shortly come to an end in the community sector. My sincere and heartfelt thanks and partly through the financial burden imposed by our go to MLC’s dedicated staff and volunteers who we present Enterprise Agreement. can rely on to respond to community need, often in Our Enterprise Agreement expired in 2015, was slightly challenging circumstances. I thank you all. Were it not for updated in 2017, and for many years the Board and staff you advocating the rights of our clients, those vulnerable have been engaged in negotiating a new one. members of society would be grossly disadvantaged. There are a number of problems with the present Agreement. I look forward to working with you all in the year ahead. One important issue is that it provides for high salaries for junior roles and unsustainable annual pay increases. Graham Jenkins To help us formulate a new structure which meets the Chair requirements of our funding bodies, during the year we engaged the services of PWC/Active Directions. Our subsequent restructure has provided some financial relief, although it has led to the loss of many experienced staff. The majority of our present staff are now on fixed-term contracts and this approach is safer than making permanent appointments at unsustainable salaries at this time. Whilst financially prudent there are several downsides. For one thing, we acknowledge that it can lead to job insecurity for many members of staff. It can lead to staff turnover, more time spent recruiting, and more time spent training new staff. It does not help us build and maintain a stable, cohesive organisation. The Board believes that it would be much better to have a revised Enterprise Agreement with comprehensive reforms so we can make permanent appointments. We also believe that greater job security will improve staff wellbeing, and this in turn can lead to higher productivity. 5 Marrickville Legal Centre | Annual Report 2019-2020 6 Letter from the Managing Principal Solicitor This year, like many in our community, Marrickville Legal And this impact is borne out in our figures: our Centre’s Centre faced incredible challenges in responding to the Employment Law Service experienced a 71.7% increase and COVID-19 pandemic. I am very pleased to report that we the Civil Law Service a 73.9% increase in demand from 1 rose to this challenge. February to 20 August 2019 compared to the same period in 2020. In the three months from April to July our Centre In what seems like a lifetime ago, at our Centre’s 40th assisted over 3000 clients, which is over 1000 more than anniversary in August last year, I delivered the following the same period last year. words to the audience: But make no mistake, the challenge is far from over for “We recognise the legal sector is changing and so too our Centre. The fallout from the economic carnage that our communities legal needs. Our response to this is COVID-19 is having will continue and we need to stand ambitious, but we aim to make Justice For Us All a reality ready to be there for our community. Roy Morgan Research by bringing our Centre, and the CLC sector, into the 21st commissioned by Good Shepherd tracked close to 6000 century. We plan to do this by developing innovative tech working Australians since April and found those already on solutions to deliver legal services more efficiently and, most low-to-average incomes were most likely to have suffered importantly, collaboratively with our community partners.” negative impacts to their employment during the pandemic. The research found that 60% of working Australians on We followed through on our commitment and our Centre’s low-to-average incomes experienced employment changes preparation work in transitioning to a digital workplace was including reduced hours, pay cuts, being stood down or already well underway before the lockdown restrictions were made redundant, creating a new class of economically imposed this year. This innovative work – with the help of vulnerable people. our pro bono partners - enabled our staff and volunteers to seamlessly transition to remote working, thereby providing The Centre remains committed to prioritising the needs of minimal disruption to service delivery at a time when our the community, and we will continue to work collaboratively community needed us the most. This year our Centre: with our community, corporate and government partners to deliver legal and support services to those in our community • transitioned all paper filing systems to paperless and who need it most. This year our Centre also launched the have helped many Centres to do the same; Duty Lawyer Service at Burwood Local Court, which Chief • developed and deployed a Client Referral Pathway Justice Henson noted is “invaluable in the current climate as through CLC Connect, which is being successfully the Court begins addressing the backlog of matters arising piloted with our friends at Western Sydney Community from necessary COVID-19 pandemic arrangements.” The Legal Centre; and Debt Crisis Legal Service was also launched, a critical service needed now more than ever that has already assisted in • deployed an online virtual assistant during the lockdown freeing countless clients from their oppressive debts.

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