Contributed
Aged care workers across the country
are fighting cuts to hours and onerous workloads.
Since the mid-1990s federal
government funding for operational needs of aged care providers has been
outcome based. The timid regulation of staff to resident ratios as a condition
of government funding that existed prior to the mid-1990s was abandoned by both
Labor and Liberal Governments as ‘self-regulation’ by employers and ‘the
market’ extended even in to aged care. Aged care providers were able to
determine their own staff to resident ratios and how many labour hours of care
they allocated to residents.
By 2014, the average number of hours
of care per resident per day has steadily declined to 2.96 hours. Aged care
providers are categorised as ‘private for profit’ and ‘charitable’. The large
private for profit providers in the industry have led the charge to the new
industry ‘benchmark’ of 2.96 hours of care per resident per day by reducing
hours of staff and increasing their workloads.
Some of the ‘charitable’ providers,
mostly owned by church groups such as Anglicare and Uniting Church, have
resisted the race to the bottom and maintained levels of care at as much as an
average of 3.75 hours per resident per day.
Abbott
government accelerates race to the bottom
However the Abbott Government has
accelerated the race to the bottom regarding hours of care for residents by
reducing the amount of government funding for ‘operational needs’ over the
coming financial year and the next decade.
The government is setting up a ‘user
pays’ system whereby an increasing amount of money to fund even the disgraceful
‘benchmark’ of 2.96 hours of care per resident per day must be paid by the
residents themselves.
Consequently many charitable
providers are now trying to implement cuts to staffing hours with devastating
impacts on both staff income and workloads.
This is being strongly resisted by
staff who are not only concerned about the reduction in the weekly incomes but
also stressed by their inability to provide the care residents need in the
working hours they are provided. Personal care staff represented by United
Voice, HSU and AN & MF unions are demanding staff to resident ratios and
security of hours of work provisions in enterprise bargaining negotiations.
They are also finding growing support
from families of residents who can see when they visit their loved ones the day
to day impact on the quality of care as staff are stretched to the limit.
When aged care providers try to
reduce staffing hours now, they are confronted by angry people on two fronts –
staff and residents.
So far the providers have been able
to weather the storm by blaming (correctly so to a large extent) the federal
government and saying that their hands are tied. However this argument is
wearing thin and the time is coming where staff, with the support of families
of residents, will be taking joint action.
Resistance has occurred for a while
in an individualistic way with many staff leaving the industry altogether, and
an increase in outbursts of anger towards providers by frustrated and desperate
family members.
However many staff cannot afford to
leave as jobs become scarce elsewhere, and because they do not want to
‘abandon’ the residents for whom they genuinely care. Similarly, angry family
members of residents have not got any real option of moving their loved one to
another provider where the same type of problem is likely to exist.
The long term solution for the aged
care staff and the industry as a whole is for the industry to be owned by the
people as part of a national public health system. In the short to medium term,
working hours and workloads of aged care staff will only improve with an
industry wide campaign by unions and communities for more funding of hours of
care as a condition of government funding to aged care providers.
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