Aged care wage rise expands to cover more workers

Commenting on the Fair Work Commission's decision to expand coverage of its recent 15 per cent aged care wage increase to include personal care workers, recreational activity officers and chefs, HSU National President, Gerard Hayes said: "This is an important step forward. To prevent aged care from collapsing every link in the chain must be strengthened. There's no point lifting wages for direct care workers if large chunks of the workforce miss out. This decision will include more classifications, and we will continue to push to have the entire aged care workforce covered. "We also welcome the Fair Work Commission's decision to apply this 15 per cent wage rise from June 30 which will accelerate the delivery of higher wages and help stave off the collapse of the workforce. "Aged care tends to the whole person and therefore needs a wholistic workforce. "HSU will continue its efforts to have an additional ten per cent increase applied, taking the entire increase to 25 per cent. We will also continue to push hard for this apply to the entire aged care workforce. "Some aged care workers are paid as little as $22 per hour and are really struggling to stay in the sector. This provides some light at the end of a very dark tunnel." Gerard Hayes 0417 275 821