Aged care deserves pay rise
Concerns mount as the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) fears nurses in the aged care sector have been “left out” of recent proposed pay rises as part of a $2 billion federal government package. The ANF responded to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement promising to join the Australian Services Union (ASU) in a wages submission to Fair Work Australia.
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Concerns mount as the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) fears nurses in the aged care sector have been “left out” of recent proposed pay rises as part of a $2 billion federal government package.
The ANF responded to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement which came late last week promising she would join the Australian Services Union (ASU) in a wages submission to Fair Work Australia in relation to equal pay for about 15,000 low paid workers.
Although the proposal was a welcomed step forward in the wage disparity, ANF federal secretary, Lee Thomas, said the government needed to acknowledge low paid workers in Australia’s fast-growing aged care sector.
“We are concerned nursing and care staff in the under-resourced aged care sector has been left out of this wage claim,” Ms Thomas said.
“The wage disparity in aged care, where women make up 90% of the workforce, has to be acknowledged and addressed as a matter of urgency by the Gillard government,” she added.
Claiming that nurses and assistants in nursing (AINs) are paid “far less than they deserve”, Ms Thomas claimed the government needed to be “consistent if it is serious” about assisting low paid workers, particularly women.
She proposed the government inject $500 million to “close the wages gap” in aged care, with an extra 20,000 nursing staff required to meet the demand of Australia’s ageing population.
Calling on the government to “step-in” to deliver quality care for nursing home residents across the country, Ms Thomas said Prime Minister Gillard should honour her commitment of fixing aged care in the 2012 Budget.
Nurses in aged care are paid on average between $160 and $300 less per week than nurses working in hospitals.
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