Collective bargaining the only way to solve aged care pay crisis 

29 May 2007

“The Government’s linking of funding for the aged the aged care workforce with collective bargaining is the only way to genuinely solve the low pay crisis across the sector,” said New Zealand Nurses Organisation organising service manager Cee Payne-Harker today.

“Over the past four years, Government has injected significant extra funding into the sector and it has not addressed the abysmal pay levels of the workforce, because it has not been passed on from providers to their employees,” she said.

Cee Payne-Harker said the key difference with this funding package was that it was assured to reach workers because of the link to collective agreements.

“Employers are simply being asked to be party to a collective agreement. This will give employees in aged care workplaces the choice about having their pay and conditions negotiated through a collective agreement. Currently many employees in the sector can only have an individual agreement.” she said.

“This model has already been working in another historically low paid sector – early childhood – and now our expectation is that it will deliver the wage movement we need to ensure quality care for our older people.”

Cee Payne-Harker said the effect of requiring the funding to be passed on through collective bargaining would stabilise the residential aged care workforce.

“This is urgently needed in an industry where we have traditionally had very high turnover, and all the associated problems of lack of training and experience, leading to problems in maintaining standards of care. “

Cee Payne-Harker said the requirement for the funding to be delivered through collective bargaining showed the workforce was being treated with the respect they deserved for the difficult job they perform.

“Unfortunately many employers have failed to respect the real value of aged care workers in the past and have continued to pay this skilled and dedicated workforce rates close to the minimum wage,” she said.

“Now at last, moving from the minimum wage of $11.25 to a rate of over $12.50 will be a reality for caregivers.”

ENDS