Fair Work aged care decision slammed

The aged care sector will struggle to attract dedicated workers following a Fair Work Australia decision, a union says.

United Voice asked the industrial tribunal yesterday (Thursday, 5 May 2011) to allow 70,000 aged care workers in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory to bargain for higher wages.

But in its decision, the industrial tribunal only allowed workers under an award to be eligible for pay negotiations.

This means that two-thirds of aged care workers in those states, who are covered by an existing enterprise bargaining agreement, miss out on the chance to negotiate a better deal with their employer.

While a majority of aged care workers hail from the non-profit church and charity sector, their pay levels are determined by commonwealth funding.

United Voice national secretary, Louise Tarrant, told DPS Publishing that she was disappointed with the Fair Work Australia decision, stating “everyone in the aged care sector needs to be involved in negotiations for a better pay deal with their employers.”

“A whole range of leading aged care providers are now excluded – left with only part of the sector who are involved in the genuine crisis of the need to lift wages and look for a sector-wide solution,” Ms Tarrant said.

She said they were in a “real crisis” to retain dedicated and qualified staff, and said that an even greater crisis was looming as aged care work would most likely “treble” in the years to come as the population keeps ageing.

The union estimates two-thirds of residential aged care workers are part-time, with women making up 93% of the sector.

Award rates range from $15.92 an hour for support staff to $17.46 for qualified personal carers.

In its judgment, the full bench of Fair Work Australia explained why it restricted its decision to award workers.

“We are satisfied that the employees to whom the authorisation would apply are low paid, that they either have not had access to enterprise bargaining or face substantial difficulty in bargaining at the enterprise level and that making an authorisation would assist them to bargain,” it said.

The tribunal said government funding levels were a significant consideration when employers made wage decisions.

“Whether funding might increase if the authorisation were granted is an important question, but it would not be appropriate to make a finding about it even if we were in a position to do so.”

The union’s application was opposed by employer groups and individual employers.

Ms Tarrant said United Voice believed enlisting the help of Fair Work Australia would be “an opportunity to fix the problem”.

“There is a desperate need to fix wages in this sector. But this decision has now made it much more difficult.

“It’s unfortunate that we feel like that decision now means that opportunity is lost.”

She said United Voice is assessing what steps now need to be taken, and state the real question is, “how do we fix the problem in aged care?”.

“If we don’t address the problem of wages and the core reason why people are leaving this sector, what hope have we got,” she said.