About 80 aged care workers from two Dunedin rest-homes and hospitals are still fighting to get a 2.8% pay increase despite the Government having made a point of boosting funding for aged care providers in this year's budget.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Otago representative Lorraine Lobb said while most rest-homes and hospitals the union dealt with in Otago had passed on the 2.8% increase to workers, the organisation was still battling to get the increase paid to workers by two Dunedin employers.
Wages for aged care workers, who included caregivers, laundry workers and kitchen assistants, ranged from a minimum $12.55 an hour to just over $15, although somebody would have had to have been in the industry for about 10 years to be on the top rates, Mrs Lobb said.
Many aged care workers did not feel they were valued by their employers and felt even 2.8% was a pitiful increase, she said.
However, some employers had "obviously dug into their pockets" to pass on increases and Presbyterian Support Otago had increased wages by 3.5%.
NZNO southern regional chairwoman Ann Galloway, who works as a caregiver, said her starting wage had been $10.49 an hour, which had taken eight years to move by $4 to $14.46.
By comparison, her son, who was still at school, earned $13.06 an hour packing supermarket shelves, she said.
"It is really annoying, because the job we are doing you can't just take anybody of the street and get them to do it."
Caregiving was getting harder as more residents had higher needs.
Rest-home residents used to be more mobile and independent, but now they generally needed more help, she said.
Otago District Health Board regional planning and funding officer David Chrisp said there was no contractual requirement for rest-homes to pass on the increases, but the board would expect a flow through to aged care workers' wages.
Last year district health boards stipulated a $1 an hour rise for all aged care workers and the acceptance of the minimum sector-wide pay rate of $12.55, after the Government increased funding by $37.5 million.
Another $13 million funding boost was announced last month, of which $5 million has been earmarked to increase the 2.8% rise for aged care providers to 3.3%.
Minister of Health David Cunliffe said, in a statement, he had made it clear he expected providers would pass the money on to the workforce.
Another $4 million would be spent by boards on workforce development and $4 million to improve the skills of aged care workers.
