Workers leave for better careers

Aged care workers would rather ‘flip burgers’ for a living than stay on a minimal wage for the rest of their lives, according to Louise Tarrant of United Voice, which is an organisation protecting the dignity of workers.

Ms Tarrant’s comments come after the union representing aged care workers lobbied in Canberra last week to demand a 50% pay rise, from $18 an hour to at least $26 an hour.

“If a job comes up at a supermarket or burger chain, [these workers] are gone and who can blame them?” Ms Tarrant asks.

She adds staff turnover rates are at critical levels because “people simply cannot live on these wages”.

Nurses who choose to work in aged care are paid an average $168 less than their public hospital colleagues.

People working in the aged sector were typically paid just $18 an hour, which was about half the average wage in Australia.

“It is critical Treasurer Wayne Swan allocates funds in the coming federal budget sufficient to raise wages to at least $26 an hour,” Mr Tarrant urges.

“The funds must be earmarked for salary increases so they can’t be absorbed into other parts of the system.”

Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, says Australian aged care workers may abandon their jobs for better-paid positions in other industries, as the resources boom aggravates the shortage of workers in the sector.  

He says a possible answer to the problem will be to create “adequate wages to recruit and retain high-quality staff to do critical aged care work”.

“What I’m also hearing from the sector is that the workforce pressures are very pronounced in mining boom states and remote and rural areas which struggle to compete for qualified staff,” Mr Butler tells The Canberra Times.

He points the finger at the “ongoing resources boom” in Queensland and Western Australia, which has seen a “crowding out” effect on aged care as many workers leave the sector to pursue a different career.

Mr Butler adds in some mining towns, potential agedcare workers are unable to compete for housing.

With a commitment to start aged care reform during this term of Parliament, Mr Butler hopes to see a “financially sustainable” system – one that is “fair to those being cared for, as well as the rest of society”.

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