Aged Care Minister tells aged care industry to reward staff
The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, has written to Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA), the peak body representing for profit nursing homes, asking them to stop complaining about regulations and pay their workers more.
Mrs Elliot said operators should start focusing on staff wages, claiming that 21% of residential aged care facilities were in breach of the Workplace Relations Act.
The letter was in response to one written by ACAA chief executive officer Rod Young, who said the industry was constrained on pay and conditions because of limits on what it could charge and what it must supply.
“Unless Government is prepared to change the way the industry is funded and permits additional income that can be applied to competitive salaries and wages, aged care providers cannot hope to compete for staff with the appropriate training and skills mix,” Mr Young wrote.
“ACAA is not sure how many times we must state the obvious.”
Mrs Elliot replied, saying independent audits by the Workplace Ombudsman found that “21% of residential aged care facilities were found to be in breach of the Workplace Relations Act.
“Breaches related to rates of pay, hours worked but not paid, time and wage records and non-conforming pay slips.”
The Minister urged the ACAA to follow the example of Queensland nursing home group Blue Care, which has given its nurses an 18% pay rise over three years.
