The latest media, news and releases about the Because We Care campaign and aged care in Australia.
Aged care workers are low paid - this impacts attracting and retaining staff. Terri is an aged care nurse in Sydney. Anna is a Diversional Therapist in Adelaide. Together they have spent almost 40 years working in Australia’s aged care sector.
The resources boom is exacerbating the shortage of aged-care workers in Australia as nursing home staff abandon their jobs for better-paid positions or are unable to find affordable housing in regional areas.
Australia’s looming aged care crisis can only be averted if the Federal Government commits to aged care reform in 2012, leading aged care sector groups said today.
The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), supported by the Council on the Ageing (COTA), have expressed concern that the Gillard Government is failing to listen to growing calls for urgent reform to address the crisis in Australia's under-resourced aged care sector.
Aged care nurses have signalled plans to be the first group to exploit yesterday's landmark equal pay ruling to push for pay rises, reinforcing business warnings the decision to grant wage increases of 23-45 per cent to 153,000 community services sector workers could trigger a raft of union claims in other industries.
Wage rises for community sector workers could pave the way for Australia’s underpaid aged care workforce to also achieve pay equity, according to the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF).