Health Services Union national secretary Gerard Hayes said he wanted Labor to reveal how it would set itself apart from Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the issue of wage rises in the embattled sector after the government declined to intervene in an application before the workplace umpire.
Unions are pressuring Labor to back its 25 per cent wage rise bid for aged care workers.iStock
“The issue now for Labor is to identify how they are different to the Morrison government,” Mr Hayes said.
“And I think ensuring that people who are predominantly women working in aged care,who have a superannuation balance of $18,000,who work two and three jobs to make ends meet,should now be remunerated at a rate that is reasonable compared to a rate of other industries.”
Labor has said it would endorse the Fair Work application for higher wages,made jointly by the HSU and the national nurses and midwives’ union,but only if it wins the upcoming federal election. The unions say an immediate submission endorsing the application would add political clout.
Annie Butler,federal secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation,said the union needed a “political guarantee”.
Leading Age Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney said the industry peak body wanted to work with unions to ask the government to fund better pay “and we are happy to talk to unions about specific figures and funding ... as part of that”.
But Aged and Community Services Australia CEO Paul Sadler said providers couldn’t name a quantum without a government commitment to fund it.
The federal government injected billions of dollars into aged care after the release in March of the royal commission’s final report,which found “inadequate staffing levels,skill mix and training are principal causes of substandard care” in the sector,which struggled to attract and retain skilled workers due to “low wages and poor employment conditions”. It recently pledged to about 230,000 aged care workers.
A spokesman for Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said wage decisions were made by the Fair Work Commission but the government was providing information “as required”.
Residents in aged care are suffering from the impacts of the pandemic,with the federal government under pressure to get it fixed.
“The FWC has not directed the Commonwealth to clarify its position on whether it will support a wage increase in the aged care sector,” the spokesman said.
While the government doesn’t pay the wages of aged care workers,it subsidises the sector,meaning any pay rise would in effect be part-funded by the public. If the Fair Work case succeeds,it would take the wage for a qualified personal carer from $23.09 to $28.86 an hour.
Economic modelling commissioned by the HSU found a 0.65 per cent increase in the Medicare levy would be able to inject a further $20.4 billion into aged care over four years.
Deloitte Access Economics chief economist Chris Richardson said Australians would probably have to pay higher taxes to boost the quality of the sector,adding there was little alternative.
“We are absolutely,as Australians,going to have to pay more than we’ve previously done,” Mr Richardson said.
Grattan Institute economist Stephen Duckett said,given the immediacy of the situation,another large funding injection was favourable,however,there would have to be caveats that the money was passed on to employees. He said the government could fund the expenditure in a number of ways,only one of which was increasing income tax.
When asked on Tuesday why his government wouldn’t intervene in the Fair Work application,Mr Morrison said he would allow the commission’s process to run its course and the government would “absorb any decision that is taken there”.
He also questioned how Mr Albanese proposed to fulfil a commitment to lift wages:“I don’t know what he estimates the cost of that will be and how he would work that through.”
Mr Albanese has repeatedly declined to nominate a figure,telling the ABC on Friday the government should lodge a submission supporting the increase. Mr Butler said it was up to the Fair Work Commission to decide on an appropriate wage increase,“but the Commonwealth government should be at the table making a submission”.
Labor’s aged care spokesperson,Clare O’Neil,repeated that it was up to governments to make submissions,and,if elected,Labor would do so “to support the argument that aged care workers needs to be paid more”.
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