Many personal care workers (PCWs) in aged care believe they would be better off financially working as supermarket checkout operators, the Aged Care Royal Commission heard on Day 3 of this week’s Melbourne hearing examining workforce issues.
Giving evidence as part of a panel made up of employer and union representatives, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF Victorian Branch) Assistant Secretary Paul Gilbert said carers felt undervalued because of low rates of pay.
“The comment I hear when I go and have meetings [with members] is ‘I could get paid more working on the checkout at ALDI’ and it’s technically true,” Mr Gilbert told the commission.
He said carers often ask themselves why their chosen career is less valued than working at a supermarket.
“That’s what they tend to compare themselves to because they see these jobs advertised with an hourly rate of $24, $25, $26. Our enrolled nurse and registered nurse members are paid more than the personal care worker cohort but not by a whole lot more.”
Counsel assisting the commission, Paul Bolster, began Day 3 proceedings by questioning the workforce panel on their respective job roles and biggest issues that emerge from their daily dealings with the members they represent.
Lisa Alcock, from the Health Workers Union, said HWU represented some of the lowest paid, invisible workers within the aged care sector such as cleaners, personal care workers, cooks, and orderlies.
“The two most critical pieces of feedback that we receive from members on a daily basis is the alarming rate of occupational violence, and that [it] is something you just have to accept when you work in aged care,” Ms Alcock revealed.
“The second is that the incredibly low rate of pay is something that you have to similarly accept and it’s hard to accept because I feel that you can’t have workers working poor and working them into poverty essentially.”
Mr Gilbert cited staffing as the biggest issue he encounters.
“The registered nurse membership have professional obligations,” he explained.
“They can only delegate care to people who they have assessed as being competent and the don’t have the staff numbers or the level of skill required for that safe, competent delegation to occur so it’s all about staffing and skill mix.”
Darren Mathewson, from Aged and Community Services Australia, said ACSA represents a large number of Not-For-Profit aged care providers delivering residential home care and other services.
Dealing predominantly with CEOs of small rural and regional providers, Mr Mathewson claimed the biggest issues relayed to him involve the financial constraints of developing good Enterprise Agreements that enable better wages and conditions for employees.
United Voice representative Clare Tunney also identified low pay as the biggest issue that emerges through representing carers, enrolled nurses and ground staff in residential and home care.
“We consistently hear that they’re concerned about low pay, the erosion of existing conditions, that they don’t have adequate training, they don’t have manageable workloads, that there aren’t enough staff on the floor and that they have significant concerns about job security.”
Delving into pay and conditions within the aged care sector, counsel assisting, Mr Bolster, told the hearing the aged care modern award provides minimum rates for a full-time PCW in aged care ranging from $20 to $25.
Ms Tunney said the figure showed aged care workers were “really undervalued”, a view shared by fellow panellist Ms Alcock.
“I think it places a societal value on that work, predominantly female work, which is undervaluing that work,” Ms Alcock said.
Mr Mathewson said his members lamented the low rate of pay within the sector, suggesting that a strategic action outlined in the recent report handed down by the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce to lift remuneration by at least 15% across the board should be considered.
“There is a structural need to adjust remuneration and we do agree with the unions that our industry has historically been viewed as an extension of care work previously delivered informally in the past and there is a need to look at it relative to other industries and lift the value, the social image of that work and absolutely the remuneration.”
Ms Alcock told the hearing aged care workers were much better off financially if they worked in the public health system than private, adding that as well as low pay many in the sector undertake large amounts of unpaid work.
“When we surveyed our members, 70% of workers we spoke to (1600 people) reported some amount of unpaid labour. There’s so much work that’s not being paid and they’re only being paid $21 an hour.”
The panel was quizzed on the level of casual labour relied upon in aged care and the preferences of both employers and employees, including the uptake of conversion from casual to permanent part-time across the sector.
Jenna Field, from Leading Aged Care Services Australia (LASA), said many employees choose to remain casual for greater flexibility and that she had never come across a permanent part-time conversion request that had been denied by an employer.
HWU’s Ms Alcock, however, suggested most workers in her experience were unaware of their rights and when they were battled hurdles to make the request and substantiate their claim so they could convert their employment.
“The majority of workers who responded that they had multiple employment responded that they did so because they were trying to make ends meet. That’s indicative that they need to do that because they’re trying to piece together a living wage and if they were given the option of having the security of employment they would take that.”
Moving to the issue of negotiating rates of pay in enterprise agreements, counsel assisting, Mr Bolster, enquired about the trends in the range of pay increases sought and offered during negotiations by both unions and employers.
“How much do you ask for Mr Gilbert?” Mr Bolster said.
“Too much it would seem,” Mr Gilbert quipped back.
Mr Mathewson said current funding constraints meant the range could be anything from 1-3.5%.
Mr Gilbert said negotiations took a lot of back and forth discussion.
“Firstly, the employer position at the base end is we’re going to do nothing and duck and hide and hope you go away. The next level up is we’ll give you CPI on government indexation, whichever is the higher and the next level up in this round has been 2.5% and nothing more,” he said.
“The pressure point from our membership is that they can’t understand why they don’t get paid the same rates as our other taxpayer funded positions but what they do critically understand is if they get a high wage increase then their hours will be reduced.”
Mr Bolster later asked Mr Gilbert how the ANMF (Victorian Branch) had managed to introduce staff ratios within some enterprise agreements in private aged care.
“We’ve only achieved it with three approved providers and I guess they’ve been approved providers who were prepared to step out into the light,” Mr Gilbert said.
“I’m sure some of the other employers weren’t too pleased that they did it. So TLC included what are reasonable ratios, not good ratios, but certainly a lot better than other staffing levels we’ve seen.”
Mr Gilbert told the hearing that aged care enterprise agreements were very rarely completed smoothly and that industrial action, as seen with the recent standoff with BUPA back in 2017, was not taken lightly by members.
“It’s not a comfortable place for people who provide care to take protected industrial action.”
Ms Alcock concurred.
“There’s a real impact on a worker if they decide to take industrial action to try and force an outcome and even then if you take industrial action in the aged care setting, there’s a very real possibility that the government will call that action off and say you can’t take industrial action because of the impact on your residents.”
In the end, Mr Gilbert told the hearing the BUPA dispute ended without success in attaining nurse-to-patient ratios and a loss of 23 RN positions.
“They didn’t get those positions back and we had to sell that we’re not going to get ratios out of the likes of BUPA. If we’re going to get ratios it’s going to be at a Commonwealth level.”
8 Responses
How about the Royal Commision visit every aged care facility and see for themselves what goes on, no warnings to the facility that they are coming and than maybe they will get first hand how these places are operating.
BUPA pottsville Ballina Street Needs a visit badly, it is absolutely horrifying how this place operates and how staff get treated.
I had a meeting with the GM AND I made a comment about the Royal commission needs to visit ,the GM Said she welcomes it but I need to see her before making contact with the Rpal commission office..does that not say enough
So true, my 41 year old son is an ACW and loves helping people BUT is often frustrated at the lack of time he has with each resident and inability to do his job of meeting their needs in a respectful amount of time. He finds it hard to support his own family on his low pay, even working long hours. He has just applied for a job at ALDI with the hope of making ends meet.
It’s so sad not only do we get paid a measly 22 bucks an hour. We r looking after your grandma’s and granndads. In saying that obviously I’m not there for the money. But nothing has been mentioned about what we do. We come home with sore shoulders backs sweating buggered bending down trying to put pressure socks on showering dressing incontinence. Using lifters 2 staff still struggle to do this. It’s very physical work . But guess what we as age care workers know we r very special people as they r our family. We know how much fun we have with them how we make them laugh . We are there family. And I also feel the other sector would be child care workers. Two of the lowest paid workers. And we look after the elderly and the young. Yes supermarkets get paid more and so does Jo Blow serving a beer over the bar. So does the government. I could go on. But Mr Government guess what I tend to get a sneaky
massage from my family befoe i go home I sing Dancing Queen to them. We tell naughty jokes. We all nearly dance on the tables once. I listen to there life they were hard workers. Men on the farm the ladies cooking milking cows . The miles they all had to walk to travel to go to school. How they all fell in love at the barn dance. At the butcher shop on the train. This could be your granny or grampa .. So much to say and tell you. I would love you to contact me let’s have a chat
Disgusting findings.
Govt, big business and not for profit groups all in cahoots with skimping out on workers pays ….. No wonder bad things are happening ….
I left my job in age care after 11 years loved my job .No STAFF worked like a dog .No enough time to spend with our precious residents .some BOSSES should not be fit to manage a nursing home .No compassion towards staff . CARERS do most of the work …discusting age care needs a big overhaule
I work with aged care. The biggest issue is the loneliness in the home. No visitors or volunteers.
These businesses are also underpaying staff. I have been ripped off 5 times in a row. Staff need to get familiar with their EBAs or awards and double check them to ensure they are getting paid correctly. There is greed both in the private and so called Christian organisations with managers misappropriating money for their allowances.
Also too, managers are overly critical and need to come out on the floor and be supportive rather than critical. They expect the impossible, while they sit in their offices doing very little making a lot of money. The who system needs to change.
ID like someone to explain to me why an aged care worker who has been working in the industry for 10 years upgrades a certificate and has to do 120 hours of volunteer work call training. Something needs to be done about this 120 hours free work from every person upgrading a certificate is nothing but a rort. The government needs to look at all the money therefore looking out for these units and the amount of money workers up getting it is an absolute disgrace. My frustrating staff you’re putting their clients at risk disgusting