News

October 1 is International Day of the Older Person. On this day, staff who work day-in and day-out to care for our elders are putting out the call for the valuing of care work. This is because care workers know the treatment of our elderly is tied to the conditions and treatment of the care workforce.

Appropriate care as we age is a basic right, and the work carers do to deliver this are essential to our communities. Despite this, governments worldwide continue to cut budgets for elder care. This has a major impact on our elders and their families. Elder care work is characterised by low wages, sometimes inadequate training, and impoverished working conditions. Short sighted, cost driven decisions are proving bad for workers and bad for communities.

That is why care workers internationally are standing up to improve the elder care sector - from Minnesota where 27,000 home care workers just won a significant victory in the face of legal challenges, to New Zealand where 2500 carers have joined a pay equity case to remedy the paltry wages paid in the sector, to Switzerland, where carers are bargaining their way to improvements for their sector. 

This October 1, care workers around the world salute our elderly and their families, and raise their voices for a better elder care sector - one which respects and values the elderly and those who care for them.