The Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) welcomes today’s Fair Work Commission decision to award further wage rises to direct care workers, but acknowledges the disappointment facing many other workers, who will receive substantially smaller increases.
The FWC awarded direct care workers wage increases of between 3% and 14%. This is on top of the 15% increase to their award rates last year.
“We’re delighted the Fair Work Commission has acknowledged the vital contribution aged care workers make to our community through the care they provide to older Australians,” ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson said.
“A key recommendation of the Aged Care Royal Commission was to raise the pay of aged care staff.”
Mr Symondson also acknowledged the disappointment facing thousands of other workers in aged care, who will receive rises of 3% to 7% and who also missed out on the 15% increases awarded to our care staff last year – at a time when all Australians are facing a cost of living crisis.
“There is an ever-widening chasm between what we pay some workers in aged care and what we pay others.”
“Without our laundry staff, kitchen staff, cleaners, gardeners, maintenance, and administrative staff our direct care workers couldn’t do what they do. They all work within the unique environment of aged care whether they are delivering services to older people in their own homes or in residential care.”
ACCPA is calling on the Federal Government to fully fund the wage increases arising from the Work Value Case, in line with the election commitment made by the Labor Party in 2022 to fund all the outcomes of the Work Value Case.
“We commend the Albanese Government for honouring its pre-election commitment and fully funding last year’s 15% award increase for direct care workers. We fully expect the Government to do the same with these increases in stage three and any further increases awarded by the Commission. As the Government acknowledged in making that promise, our sector can only afford such increases for our valued workers with matching government funding.”
“With our sector losing billions of dollars over the past five years, there has been almost no investment in growing our services to cater for the increasing numbers of people who need them. Lenders won’t lend money to providers to fix these problems because they can’t afford to pay back those loans, creating a vicious cycle.”
The Taskforce has ruled out a specific tax or levy on all working Australians, which was originally recommended by the Aged Care Royal Commission, opting for a means tested user pays model with a strong safety net to ensure nobody is disadvantaged.
“The unavoidable truth is that aged care needs far greater investment to deliver the services the Royal Commission challenged us to provide, and that community expects. The hardest question is how to balance the fairness of asking older Australians with financial means to make a greater financial contribution to their own care, against the fairness of asking a shrinking percentage of working-age Australians, who already fund the vast majority of the aged care system through their taxes, to shoulder an even greater burden.”
“Older Australians are demanding and deserve higher levels of care and we need to be able to provide it for them.”
