The Gillard Government has delivered on their promise for second term reform of aged care, with an announcement of $1.2 billion dollars to address workforce pressures.
The ANF congratulates the Gillard Government on delivering their commitment for real reform to the thousands of nurses, assistants in nursing and personal care workers in aged care.
This is a real victory for the Because We Care campaign. For over three years the Because We Care campaign has been advocating for significant funding and workforce improvements in aged care, to ensure that quality care can be delivered to older Australian’s.
The Government has recognized that an “appropriately skilled and well qualified workforce is fundamental to the delivery of quality aged care”, and has listened to the Because We Care campaign.
Aged care – a career of choice
The Government has acknowledged that aged care needs to be promoted as a career of choice, and to do this, qualifications, competency standards, access to career development and skills training must be addressed.
The Government will provide an additional $1.2 billion to providers who take steps to improve the terms and conditions of their workers.
Workforce Compact
A Workforce Compact, developed by an independently chaired Advisory Group in consultation with the sector, and endorsed by the Government will ensure that workforce reforms lead to improvements in terms and conditions for the aged care workforce.
This Workforce Compact will be finalised by September and the Minister for Employment & Workplace Relations in consultation with the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing and the President of Fair Work Australia.
Representatives of the ANF will be heavily involved in negotiating the Workforce Compact.
Implementation of Workforce Compact
From 1 July 2013 $1.2 billion will be provided to implement the Workforce Compact over four years. Key elements of the Compact will be:
- higher wages
- improved training and education opportunities
- improved career development and workforce planning
- better work practices.
These improvements will be provided directly to workers through enterprise bargaining. The ANF will be involved in negotiating these enterprise agreements and ensuring that nurses, assistants in nursing and personal care workers achieve significant wage increases that are fair, competitive with the public sector, and encourage recruitment and retention.
More details to come
We will be working through the details in the next few weeks, but this is a significant win for nurses, assistants in nursing, personal care workers and the Because We Care campaign.
Thanks everyone for your hard work and effort over the last 3 years and congratulations to members and supporters of the Because We Care campaign.
You can read the full story at the ABC web page.
There are no comments, why not leave one using the form below