Aged care workers vow to strike before election

Thousands of aged care workers across three states have voted to take ‘unprecedented strike action’.

UWU aged-care director Carolyn Smith says the strike action would represent the first time aged-care workers have taken national strike action.

Thousands of aged-care workers across three states have voted to take “unprecedented strike action” in protest at inadequate staffing and pay, with union officials declaring walkouts are almost certain in the final weeks of the federal election campaign.

United Workers Union members at Queensland’s largest aged-care provider, Bluecare, and South Australia’s largest residential aged-care provider, Southern Cross Care, have voted in favour of strike action, joining aged care workers at Anglicare in SA, Hall & Prior in Western Australia and Churches of Christ in Queensland.

The endorsed industrial action at the five aged-care providers employing 7000 workers allows for indefinite stoppages and other forms of industrial action.

A ballot is also being conducted among 5000 workers at three other major aged-care providers, Aegis and Regis in WA and Bolton Clarke in SA.

UWU aged-care director Carolyn Smith said the strike action would represent the first time aged-care workers have taken national strike action in protest at their employers’ failure to address poor pay and staffing levels.

“Residents are being left without basic needs being met, they are left soiled for extended periods and they are at risk of falls when left unattended,” she said.

“In addition, aged-care workers face pay levels so low they can barely afford the petrol to get to work, and outrageously heavy workloads mean a majority of aged-care workers are thinking about resigning for good.

“I have never seen aged-care workers as angry as they are now. People are saying either something has got to change or I am leaving the sector. That is the conversation we are having over and over again.”

Fair Work Commission hearings into a union claim to lift aged-care pay to 25 per cent above the award are due to start next week, prompting providers to call for the industrial action not to go ahead until the case is determined.

But Ms Smith said the message from members was that they were “just sick of waiting for other people to make decisions about their lives”, and, even if ­the claim was upheld pay rises could be phased in over many years.

She said she believed industrial action would occur during the final weeks of the election campaign. “That’s up to the workers but you’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t you?,” she said.

“This is their moment after years of aged care not getting much attention. They’ve had a royal commission. They are the workers who were in the most dangerous frontline jobs during the pandemic. And we are weeks out from a federal election.

“Aged-care workers want to make a point about what’s happening in aged care and what needs to change.

“This is the moment.”

Ms Smith said the UWU would likely give more than the required 72 hours notice before workers took action.

“We will be working with providers about calling in extra staff, about calling in agency staff, about putting all their registered nurses on shift for that day,” she said. “So it’s going to be tough. It might cost the providers a bit because they might have to get a whole bunch of extra staff in. Certainly, we’ll be working with providers around those issues.”

Leading Aged Services Australia CEO Sean Rooney said industrial action should not be taken while the commission was determining the wage claim.

“We urge aged care workers to continue their compassionate and dedicated work in looking after the residents and clients in their care,” he said.

“Industrial action at this point in time is not appropriate whilst the work value case is now before the Fair Work Commission.

“Aged-care providers support the work-value case and call on all parties, whoever is elected to government, to support the outcome and fund a pay rise for aged-care staff, as recommended by the royal commission.”

Mr Rooney said that since the start of the pandemic, aged care workers had gone above and beyond to deliver care and to keep people safe.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese pledged in his budget in reply speech that a federal Labor government would fully fund any pay rises awarded by the commission to aged care workers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison subsequently matched the Labor leader’s promise.

Ms Smith said aged-care workers had been “caught between the government saying ‘we fully fund the sector (but) wages have nothing to do with us’. and employers saying ‘we’d love to give you a pay rise’.”

Health Services Union national president Gerard Hayes said HSU members in Victoria and NSW did not intend to take industrial action.