Class action seeks much better deal Packing worker: Tyson Duval-Comrie, 25, is paid only $1.77 an hour. Lawyers acting for thousands of underpaid intellectually disabled workers will lodge a court application on Monday seeking to block the federal government's scheme to tackle the underpayments. Legal firm Maurice Blackburn will file a Federal Court action in an attempt to stop 10,000 intellectually disabled employees at sheltered workshops signing away their legal rights to sue the government for back pay. Some employees in the case are paid less than $1 an hour. Last week, the government said it would make a one-off payment, in July, to the underpaid employees. The amount to be paid was not specified, but those who agreed to receive the payment would waive their rights to sue for potentially a much larger amount. The payment promise followed a court decision in 2012 that found people who worked at sheltered workshops had been underpaid for several years, in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act. The government's proposal to set up the new fund came just weeks after a class action was lodged by Maurice Blackburn in December, seeking to recover underpayments. Last week, Social Services assistant minister Mitch Fifield said the one-off payment would "deliver certainty" for workers, their families and carers, with minimal disruption. However, Maurice Blackburn industrial relations head Josh Bornstein said the government's plan was immoral because it attacked a highly vulnerable group of workers. "This government is attempting a shake-down of intellectually disabled people," Mr Bornstein said. The move had followed the government's changes to remove superannuation top-up payments for low-paid workers, and after it had changed plans to increase wages for aged-care and childcare workers, he said. "There is a pretty strong pattern emerging already of this government attacking the rights of the lowest paid," he said. Under laws governing the workshops, many disabled staff are legally paid between $1 and $2 an hour, despite the supposed minimum wage being $16.37 an hour. The application to the Federal Court on Monday will demand that all communication between the government and disabled workers involved in the class action be supervised by the court. There are more than 300 Australian Disability Enterprises employing about 20,000 disabled people in various workplaces. Among those involved in the class action is Tyson Duval-Comrie, 25, who has an an intellectual disability, and is employed at a centre that does packaging. His wage is $1.77 per hour, and under the court battle he is fighting, this would rise to $3.54.