Wage win for aged care workers

The Health Services Union has welcomed the Fair Work Commission decision to extend the 15% interim pay rise to include recreational activities officers/lifestyle officers and head chef/cooks and its announcement that the increase will apply in full from 30 June 2023.

The interim 15% pay rise applies to these workers:

In residential aged care:

• All personal care workers;

• All Recreational Activities Officers/Lifestyle Officers;

• The most senior food services employee engaged at a facility (be they head

chef/chef/cook);

• All nurses

In home care:

•All home care workers who work in aged care.

Disappointingly, this means that other incredibly hard-working aged care workers who are crucial members of the aged care team such as administrative staff, kitchen, cleaning, laundry, gardening, and maintenance workers will have to wait even longer for a decision on their wages which will be made in a later stage of the case.

The HSU will continue working hard for these members and pushing for the full 25% to apply to ALL aged care workers.

HSU national president Gerard Hayes described the decision as "an important step forward".

"To prevent aged care from collapsing every link in the chain must be strengthened," Hayes said.

"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."