Unless older people and those who care for them are valued, New Zealand will face a fast-approaching "social crisis", a member of the Human Rights Commission believes.
Equal employment opportunities commissioner Judy McGregor was at the University of Otago this week for a public discussion about the cost of aged care in New Zealand, and raised the question of who would pay for it in the future.
Dr McGregor worked undercover in the elderly care sector for about a week earlier this year, and found discriminatory and unjust pay inequalities within the industry.
The Caring Counts report, which she released last month, found community care workers funded by district health boards through providers were often paid $3 to $5 an hour less than staff directly employed by the boards.
Her report made recommendations on how to solve the problem, including introducing a stepped approach to achieving pay parity in the low-paid workforce within three years, and establishing minimum qualification levels for aged-care workers and compulsory safety standards to replace the present voluntary standards.
"I do think the aged-care sector is a form of modern-day slavery.
"If aged-care workers are the guardians of the frail elderly, they need to be paid better.
"With an ageing population, we need to confront the challenge of who is going to care for them.
"We won't have enough carers. It's estimated we will be short by about 20,000 carers by 2030, which isn't very far away."
She asked Dunedin residents to attend a Human Rights Commission summit later this year to discuss how New Zealand could act on the recommendations in her report.
