Care & Support Pay Equity Claim Newsletter

Lobbying action continues to build around the country in support of the Care & Support Pay Equity Claim! Members all over the motu have been telling their stories to Ministers, seeking their support to implement the union-negotiated settlement and an interim pay increase - now!  

Position paper - Hand this to any decision maker you are lobbying for this claim

PSA guide to lobbying MPs for Care & Support Pay Equity Claim

Story of self worksheet - Use this worksheet to help prepare before your lobbying action

As an essential health worker in care and support, the work you do is often unseen and not understood. 

We want you to tell us your story, whether it's:

• what do you do in your job,
• why this is important to your clients,
• and/or why your work and skills need to be valued.

Click here to record a video, send a voice message, or write your story.

Add your name to the form below to connect with other care and support workers in your region to collectively work on Pay Equity.

https://responses.psa.org.nz/Register202306064439755.asp

The role of the delegate is to act as a democratic leader and represent PSA members in the workplace. Relationship building is key to the role of a delegate – with members, fellow delegates and with management.

To become a delegate:

• Read about the role of delegates at the PSA
• Download and submit the appropriate delegate nomination form from the list below: 
  • Download the Workplace Delegate Nomination Form
  • Download the Rūnanga Workplace Delegate Nomination Form
  • Download the Hinonga Māngai Māori Delegate Nomination Form (formerly Māori Enterprise Delegate)
  • Download the Vā Moana Delegate Nomination Form (Pasefika enterprise delegate)
  • Download the National Enterprise Delegate Nomination Form
• Contact your local organiser

PSA delegates are a part of a team. Even after you’ve done your training, you’ll be supported by other delegates and your PSA organiser. You can also contact Te Roopu Tohutohu Manaaki, the PSA’s member advice and support centre, for more help. 

Pay equity is about women and men receiving the same pay for doing jobs that are different, but of equal value. That is, jobs that require similar levels of skills, responsibility and effort.

An assessment of the job is done and it is compared against a similar male-dominated role – a comparator – to calculate appropriate rates of pay. Men are also covered by the claim! This is different from Equal Pay which compares the rates of pay of men and women doing the same job.

It is time your work is valued, and your pay rates recognise your skills, effort, experience and work conditions.

Historically women have been paid less than men. This means that jobs that have mostly been carried out by women, such as: Care & Support, Nursing, or Administration, are paid less than jobs that have mostly been carried out by men. 

This is sex-based discrimination!

Pay Equity claims are a way of ensuring that 'women's' work is fairly paid. This Care & Support Pay Equity claim aims to achieve new rates of pay that reflect the skills and responsibilities, and physical and emotional effort that it takes to be a Care & Support Worker. 

You are worth 100%!

The claim was raised with 15 employers across aged care, disability, home support, and mental health & addictions. These are known as the 'representative employers'

The claim covers workers who work in care and support roles for the 15 representative employers:

BUPA, CCS Disability Action Incorporated, Dunedin Community Care Trust, Emerge Aotearoa, Geneva Healthcare Limited, Healthcare of New Zealand Ltd, New Zealand Community Living Ltd, Pacific Island Homecare Services Trust, Pathways Health Ltd, Presbyterian Support Central, Spectrum Care Ltd, Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust, The Lifewise Trust, Toucan Taranaki, VisionWest Community Trust.

If you work for one of the above organisations when the claim is settled you will automatically receive the new rates of pay. 

The Unions want the settlement to be extended to ALL other Support workers - but that will be a separate process, using the funded framework with agreement by the Government.

Our Unions aim is for all care and support workers to receive an increase in pay at the same time.

A great question! 

Back in 2017 there was a case taken by Support Worker Kristine Bartlett and the unions to say that Care & Support work was undervalued. This went through the courts and.....it won!

Through this case, it was established that Care & Support work was undervalued and workers saw their rates increase. This was called the Care and Support Workers Pay Equity Settlement Act. This act set out the rates of pay for Care & Support workers for the next four years. 

However, over the past four years inflation and the cost of living have skyrocketed, meaning these new rates have eroded and now the top rate of $28.25 will only be $5.55 above the minimum wage. This act will expire on 1 July 2023  and so a new way to address Pay Equity for Care & Support workers was needed. 

So, on 1 July 2022 PSA, Etu & NZNO lodged a new Pay Equity Claim - This is the claim that is happening now!

You might be wondering.....what stops this from happening again after this new claim has settled? 

Part of the negotiations for this claim will be to ensure a better mechanism to maintain pay equity rates. This means that we won't have to do another Pay Equity claim to keep Care & Support workers' rates where they need to be in line with inflation. 

A Pay Equity claim is a huge piece of work!

Below you can see the different stages of a claim. There is a lot of complex, technical, and detailed work that goes into proving that your work is undervalued, and then bargaining with the government to get the funding needed to pay you what you are worth!  

A claim can take up to three years to complete. However, this Care & Support Claim is on track to be settled in a year, and the unions and the representative employers have been putting a huge amount of time and resources into making that happen!

In 2017, care and support workers achieved historic pay increases and improvements when we unions won our Care and Support (Pay Equity) Settlement. The courts agreed with unionised care and support workers that the work was undervalued, and that pay rates, training, and progression needed to be vastly improved. This was a huge achievement for nearly 65000 workers in aged care residential, home support, disability support and, in 2018, mental health and addictions. This Settlement was an important step in recognising the value of the work care and support workers do.

The basis of the historic  2017 settlement was the establishment of a close relationship between care and support workers and remuneration paid to DHB healthcare and psychiatric assistants. Between 2017 and 2022 the remuneration for DHB workers has moved way ahead of the care and support workers’ remuneration.

The unions are claiming an immediate catch up and the establishment of new pay rates and we need workers to attend meetings to discuss and endorse the pay claim

The care and support workforce is under pressure from the many demands of Covid but also because of staff shortages caused by New Zealand’s traditional reliance on low pay rates and migrant workers. A settlement of new increased pay rates is an important part of resolving these issues.

Union members, union delegates and union staff were involved in achieving the extension of the Pay Equity Settlement Act (expires Dec 2023). The act became law the week of June 20th with a 3% increase to all support workers' rates of pay and maintained the requirement for training and qualifications.

We believe the 3% was not enough. We have formally written to the government to ask them to agree to an interim pay increase during the pay equity process (similar to other workers in the health sector pay equity claims) until the full pay equity process is completed. 18 months is far too long to wait for a further increase given the government had decided to provide you with only a 3% increase on your rates of pay during this period.

This is a joint campaign with our sister unions, NZNO and E tū. 

Other employers in the representative PE claim are BUPA, CCS Disability Action, Dunedin Community Care Trust, The Lifewise Trust, Pacific Island HomeCare, Presbyterian Support central and Toucan Taranaki.