fair sharenewsNEWS FOR NZNO AND SFWU MEMBERS WORKING IN AGED CARE

SUMMER 2013

In this issue:Unions are pushing for better pay with two important campaigns which will make a difference to the pay of every carer in the land. Fair share news looks at the Living Wage and Equal Pay campaigns. Susan Stewart shares her thoughts about what’s important for the aged care sector this year. There are updates on pay negotiations and a consultation success story from New Plymouth. Check out the Living Wage wordfind and hear about a non-profit rest home in Auckland.

2013 is full of possibilities NZNO’s Susan Stewart shares her wishes for the aged care sector for the coming year.I hope by the end of this year we can look back and say we turned our talk into action!

2013 will be the year employers, DHBs and Government commit to delivering the outcomes we need to give our residents a chance to live out their final years with dignity and respect.

To achieve this we need to champion the Caring Counts report. The outrage expressed by the Human Rights Commissioner that we are paid “slave wages” must frame our pay negotiations. We will not accept a token amount to top up our poverty wages!

We are due to negotiate with all the big aged care employer chains. This creates opportunities to win enforcement issues, and to recruit and support more union workplace leaders. The number of union members we have and the action we are willing to take will win the day. We learnt this last year from our Oceania sisters and brothers.

Community support continues to grow for our aged care charter demands and we will remind the providers and funders of these during the DHB elections. The elections give us an opportunity to hold decision-makers accountable and get our aged care demands on their agenda. We must get them to commit to put their money where their mouth is.

This work will also see us reaching out into our communities. We will raise our heads and stand proudly alongside our community allies, such as Grey Power.

With our Living Wage campaign and Equal Pay court action we will work with new and old friends in the churches and family/resident groups.

This is our time; the years of hard work are converging in 2013 and the momentum is building. Our members, residents, families, the community and the employers are ready to agree to a plan that delivers real wage increases, recognised transferable training, compulsory staffing and dedicated government funding to achieve parity.

The challenge for us all in the the aged care sector is to maintain this momentum and nail these outcomes. You can be a part of our historical and powerful campaign by organising your workplace. All it takes is one hour a week talking about what it is like to care for your residents, what we need to care for them respectfully, recruiting new workers to our unions, supporting your delegates....

Let’s make our dreams a reality.

Welcome to 2013, a very exciting year in aged care.

Government funding hits new lowGovernment funding for aged care is expected to hit a new low this autumn with the Ministry of Health expected to increase aged care contracts with providers by less than 1 percent.

Sources suggest the increase will be a record low of 0.87 percent and that providers will be presented with a ‘take it, or leave it’ option.

That’s bad news for the elderly, for rest home operators and for staff. Even if most providers agree to ‘pass on’ the increase to staff, pay rates in the sector will still fall far short of respecting the work carers perform.

With pay talks in most of the large rest home chains beginning in the autumn, the record low funding means the pressure will be on employers to increase their support for the Human Rights Commission “Caring Counts” report. This includes pay parity with DHBs, support for staff to achieve Level 3 qualifications and mandatory safety (and staffing) standards.

Delegates on the negotiating teams will also be asking employers to help NZNO and SFWU reach out to non union staff to pressure the government for real funding and real delivery.

Where to from here?We will continue to work with the Caring Counts coalition on making its recommendations a reality.

We will work hard in our bargaining with all the big chains (BUPA, Oceania, Radius).

We will work hard to win our enforcement issues and work towards pay parity with our DHB brothers and sisters.

We know the real value of our work and even the chief executive of Radius, Brien Cree says

“[Caregivers] are significantly undervalued. In an absolutely ideal world they’d be paid $20.00 an hour. That’s probably what the job is worth. Registered nurses in the sector would get double what they are currently paid”

With Government funding likely to be a miserable amount, it is going to be tough to keep pace with the cost of living. What holds us back is our union density - when we have more members we have a much stronger voice!

We are back in bargaining soon, so now is a good time for non members to be joining up.

It is our time, lets make the most of it!

We all benefit when everyone is in the union. Encourage your colleagues to join so we can stand together for a better working life.

All the way for Equal Pay!The first round of a legal fight that could change the face of aged care is underway.

Last year caregiver Kristine Bartlett agreed to be the ‘test case’ for a challenge to the Equal Pay Act. Women around New Zealand might have been scratching their heads thinking; “didn’t that law come in back in 1972?”. And they’d be right.

Its 42 years since the law was changed to make it illegal to pay women less for doing the same jobs as men. Now Christine is fronting a Service and Food Workers Union case that will test the law to see if it also means women should be paid the same as mean for doing “similar” work.

The case has already attracted strong interest from both the government and employers and as it proceeds will ask two important questions. Firstly, why caregivers working in residential care are paid less than caregivers working in our public hospitals. Secondly, and even more importantly, the case will ask why the pay gap between jobs largely done by men pay more than jobs largely done by women. A common example of this in aged care is the pay rates for ‘handymen’, typically around $20 an hour compared to the pay rates for carers.

“Changing light bulbs is important work,” says one time carer and now union organiser Penny Clark. “But it’s a lot less demanding than caring for a vulnerable older person.”

Penny says the case will be a wake-up call for thousands of carers and hopes non-union care staff will realise they need to be involved. “There are thousands of carers who don’t have the respect or the voice that comes with union membership. This is the time to stand up and be counted. And the way to do that is to join SFWU or NZNO.

The case is currently before the Employment Court so watch out for news of its progress.

Working towards a living wageAs the gap between the rich and poor grows in New Zealand and poverty increases, more and more New Zealanders don’t get paid enough to meet their needs, enjoy their lives and participate in society.

The Living Wage Campaign in Aotearoa New Zealand connects community and faith-based organisations and unions around a common goal of achieving a living wage as a necessary step in reducing inequality and poverty in our society.

“A living wage is the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life. A living wage will enable workers to live with dignity and to participate as active citizens in society. We call upon the Government, employers and society as a whole to strive for a living wage for all households as a necessary and important step in the reduction of poverty in New Zealand.”

When a coalition of community groups and unions announced in February that every New Zealander needed to earn at least $18.40 per hour they were talking to tens of thousands of New Zealander including care givers, factory workers and retail staff.

Modelled on successful campaigns in the United Kingdom and North America the campaign relies on community pressure to convince local bodies, employers and central government that society operates better when all its members can participate fully.

Wellington caregiver and union leader Marianne Bishop says the campaign reaches out beyond unions and deep into communities. “Those of us who are union member have a whole lot of other connections. It might be family, it might be sports or cultural groups or perhaps a church group. It’s great that unions are active in the campaign but we need to make sure it is driven by community, church and other groups.

With caregivers, even in strong union sites typically paid a lot less than $18.40 Marianne says the campaign is one that will ring a bell in aged care.

For more information on the Living Wage campaign go to www.livingwagenz.org.nz or join the Facebook page: search for LivingWageAotearoaNewZealand

Delegates talk about the Living Wage SymposiumMaya Prasad, Tusiga Lamshong and Lepeti Laseto are union delegates and all three attended the recent Living Wage Symposium held in Auckland. We asked them how they were finding the conference.

Q. What do you think of what you have heard today?

“We’ve really enjoyed what we have heard. We have to hold politicians and employers accountable because they are always promising promising promising, but delivering nothing; like Brian Cree saying he thinks we should be paid $20 per hour! We need to work with politicians and employers to get the living wage. We need to start talking with our families and then take the idea to our communities. Low wages makes lots of problems in health, debt, access to education, not time for family, stress, people feel desparate. Low wages have a high cost to the community.”

Q. What do you think of the living wage rate of $18.40?

“Great idea.” “We’re on the lowest wages.” “A living wage would help lots of families, lift them out of poverty.” “We need real jobs with decent wages.” “We need more money on ACC and higher benefits.”

Q. How does the living wage compare with your wage?

“$18.40 is way higher than our hourly rates of $15-16 an hour.”

Q. Where do you work?

Maya and Tusiga: “We work at St Joan’s Hospital, Radius.” Lepeti: “I work at Ranfurly Village which has just changed employer from a non-profit trust to a for-profit company.”

Q. What do you do?

We are all health care assistants

LIVINGWAGEINCOMEFAIRNESSNECESSARY

PROVIDEWORKERSFAMILYDIGNITYPARTICIPATE

CITIZENSOCIETYEQUALITYSTRIVEPOVERTY

EDUCATIONCHILDRENMOKOPUNALEGACYDECENT

Q. If you knew you would get the living wage no matter what job you had, would you stay in aged care?

“If we could get $18.40 in another job and we could get that job, we would do that job, but if they paid us $18.40 in our job now, we’d stay in aged care.”

Q. What difference would the living wage make to you and your family?

“It would really help to pay our bills. It would really help to reduce stress in our family, the stress of not knowing if we can pay all of our bills.”

Living wage word find

Wesley Care-Methodist Mission in ChristchurchWesley Care Home and Hospital, an aged care facility operated by Christchurch Methodist Mission is celebrating the success of recent delegate elections which saw the NZNO goal of one delegate per ten members being reached. This follows on from last year’s collective agreement negotiations with NZNO where Christchurch Methodist Mission once again proved itself to be a leader in Aged Care. Members negotiated pay increases ranging from 1.7 percent - 2.95 percent with the greatest increase going to the lowest paid members. As a result of this year’s negotiations there is also now a minimum rate of $15 per hour for service staff in the collective employment agreement.

“I’m proud to work for an employer who shows the value they place on their staff by consistently paying above the average even in tough times. It is now in the government’s hands to provide better funding for the sector and to ensure the HRC ‘Caring Counts’ report recommendation for parity with the DHBs is realised.” NZNO delegate, Heather Bradford

Anglican Living Fitzgerald ComplexCaregiver Trainer, Annette Dalton (SFWU) is pictured here alongside Anglican Living services worker Lorraine Olsen (SFWU) who she supported to attain a number of ACE papers. The SWFU and NZNO bargaining team in 2012 agreed with Anglican Living that service workers who completed a number of agreed ACE papers would receive a 50 cent increase to their wages. The papers include such topics as the ageing process, effective communication and safety and security. Annette encourages all non-care workers to take up the challenge of doing some ACE papers and Lorraine agrees that they have been interesting and useful to her in her role.

NZNO/Rannerdale War Veterans Home Safe Staffing Forum NZNO members look on as Professional Nursing Advisor, Lorraine Ritchie, presents a session on incident reporting. Lorraine presented two sessions to RNs and HCAs at Rannerdale War Veteran’s home in Christchurch as part of a joint education programme agreed to during bargaining in 2012. The sessions were supported by Rannerdale as part of its in-house training programme.

“Understanding when an incident report is needed and how to fill one in is a critical part of maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. Members now feel more confident about filling them in especially as our employer has been so supportive of this programme”. NZNO delegate Cushla Berkett (HCA)

Fair share for aged care? It depends....A few years ago you could tell what was happening in aged care by looking at the occupancy levels at the local church-run rest home. In some parts of the country that’s still true but these days you can also get a feeling for what’s going on by studying the sharemarket.

Sharemarket updates are on the TV every day but if you’re too busy with the kids/grandkids, check out the share market results in the business pages of one of the national newspapers. Rest home and retirement village operators such as Summerset, Metlifecare and Ryman are reported on a daily basis. Last year Ryman shares alone rose 65 percent in value. Not a bad result – if it was matched by the same increase in staff wages. Others such as BUPA and Oceania don’t trade their shares on the NZ stock exchange but they, like just about every other provider, including the church-run operators still talk about their “return on investment”.

Later this year the government will announce its funding increase for the sector. Most are picking it will be 1 percent - or less. That’s bad news for staff since employers see the DHB funding as the backbone for pay offers and while that might have worked when DHB increases were higher, it’s not going to pay the bills for hard working carers.

This tension between how some providers perform on the stock market and how (nearly) all providers approach pay talks isn’t new. But as profits for publicly listed companies such as Ryman soar, it’s going to be hard for employers to see their share market value rise, while the staff struggle for their fair share.

Review at Chalmers a massive taskIn October 2012, union members working at Presbyterian Support Central (PSC) facility Chalmers were told there was to be a review of the rostering process with the aim of ensuring consistent and fair rostering patterns for all staff. They were told that any changes would be introduced with as little dispruption to members as possible.

PSC acknowledged that a large number of caregivers at Chalmers have service well in excess of 15 years, with the longest serving member clocking up 35 years and they commited to doing the review in partnership with the unions.

PSC claimed the rostering was very ad hoc, not flexible and did not take skill mix into account.

Concerns had been raised by members that their shifts were not consistent and they indicated a desire for more certainty around the expected roster.

This review has been a task of mammoth proportions! All caregivers with 15 years service or more were given the option of retaining their exisiting shift patterns.

NZNO support the concept of safe rostering practices along with the right skill mix, however the overarching goal for NZNO was to ensure that union members were not disadvantaged.

A big complicating factor in determining every member’s permanent hours was the fact that due to the current practice of ad hoc rostering to fill gaps, it became very difficult to determine actual ownership of hours.

PSC believe they have consulted sufficiently and intend to commence the new rostering system on 4 March 2013.

NZNO delegates will be on alert to monitor and respond to any identified disadvantages should they start to surface.

It pays to be union at Caughey Preston.Caughey Preston Rest Home and Hospital is one of the largest aged care facilities in Auckland, with 253 beds. Caughey Preston is a not for profit organisation, managed by a Trust.

NZNO and SFWU have been active on this site for decades. There is very low staff turnover and many employees have service of more than 10 years. The average length of service is 6 years.

Employees’ rates of pay across all of the classifications (care staff and service staff), is much closer to parity with DHBs hourly pay rates and allowances than any of the corporate providers.

Caughey Preston has won an Equal Employment Opportunities award in the recent past for supporting cultural diversity in the workplace, including providing adult literacy education to employees in the workplace.

As a non-profit, they are not distracted by a profit imperative from the core business of providing quality care.

The unions value their relationship with Caughey Preston and appreciate the good communication and information sharing on matters of mutual concern.

Union delegates at the 2012 Collective agreement negotiations: L to R - Debbie Taueki, Annie Zhuang, Aileen Stapleton, Eva Siakia and Elaine Cordes - Paki. Absent: SFWU delegate: Patsy Merila.

For more information about joining the union contact New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Phone 0800 28 38 48 www.nzno.org.nz

Service and Food Workers Union Ngā Ringa Tota Phone 0800 86 46 61

www.sfwu.org.nz

Government response to issues in aged care patronisingThe Health Select Committee has released its report on the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and Service and Food Workers Union Ngā Ringa Tota (SFWU) petition calling for proper funding of the aged care sector.

We’re frustrated that the report does nothing more than suggest that the Government “acknowledge the commendable work that those employed in the aged-care sector carry out every day”.

It is completely patronising for the Government members of the Health Select Committee to say this, while wholly ignoring the concerns of unions, those who work in the aged care sector, the Human Rights Commission and almost every stakeholder in the aged care industry, including the owners of rest homes.

It is time for the Government to listen to the thousands of people of Aotearoa who signed our petition and also participated in the Human Rights Commission investigation.

The Government’s blinkered approach is morally wrong; they are compromising the quality of care our vulnerable elders receive and are consigning those who care for them to live on poverty wages.

Our petition called for safe staffing levels, pay parity, training and targeted government funding. It is about time the Government fronted up and dealt with these issues.

We’re fed up with talking - it’s time for action!

Quality care for older New Zealanders

I ask the Government to properly fund aged care services in New Zealand and I support the campaign to achieve:

Compulsory safe staffing levels and skill mix so that every resident gets the care they need, when they need it

Fair pay and conditions for aged care workers so that their work is respected and paid the same as health workers in public hospitals

One nationally recognised training and education programme for all aged care staff

A guarantee that government funding is only used for nursing and personal care of residents

Because I care,