News

Low paid workers in the aged care sector are winning Collective Union Agreements, and are looking at every option for justice in their industry, including a ground-breaking legal case on equal pay.

The Service and Food Workers' Union (SFWU) and New Zealand Nurses Organisation, who represent New Zealand's aged care workforce, have acheived two collective agreement wins in the past month at the BUPA and Oceania rest home chains. This is big news in the context of pay freezes, minimal government funding, and employers fighting an equal pay case being taken by the workers.

Oceania had attempted to cut conditions, by proposing a reduction in sick leave entitlements and a proposal to reduce overtime rates. A hard fought campaign ensued, and the settlement won includes a pay increase, plus improvements to the weekend work allowance. Importantly, union members stopped the proposed company claw-backs and cuts from happening. Members across the country will now have the chance to vote on the deal in the coming weeks. Watch the video from the member-led negotiating team who have done a great job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m39f4iPzgw&feature=youtu.be

BUPA's settlement sees the company paying double the government's funding increase and has led to increased activism in an equal pay case which is increasingly critical to workers in the sector, written about previously here. The case lifts the lid on a big issue for low paid female dominated sectors of work in New Zealand and, as Kirstine Bartlett, the SFWU member fronting the case has said `We’re all women who work damn hard. And we’re all underpaid. The difference is that we are speaking out and standing up.'

Congratulations to these union members who are fighting hard to do everything within their power to win the best settlement possible, along with respect and recognition for hard working, professional, aged care staffers around the country.