Only a third of home-based aged care workers have a guaranteed minimum hours work each week, a survey has found.
The 2016 Aged Care Workforce Survey, undertaken by AUT and released yesterday, confirms the shortage of workers in aged care in New Zealand which was noted in 2014.
Home and community based healthcare assistants appear to have less work and job security than those employed in residential aged care work.
Health and safety issues from the 2014 survey are still problematic, including physical and verbal abuse from patients, emotional distress, workload and environment, and insufficient policy, the authors say.
Almost 1500 responses were counted in the survey, 96% of were women, 82% Pakeha, 13% Maori, with non-NZ European, Pasifika, Chinese and Filipino making up the rest.
At the time of the survey, the minimum wage was $15.25 an hour and more than 46% of respondents earned between $15.26 and $16.99 per hour, 5% earned less than minimum wage, and 36.5% earned exactly the minimum wage.
Over half of respondents were the main income earner in their home.
However, a pay equity settlement was reached that’s expected to give about 55,000 low-paid care workers a large wage increase last month.
Worker’s union E tu says the survey paints a picture of an industry ‘‘plagued by stress, insecure hours, and inadequate pay’’.
Home support worker and union delegate Tamara Baddeley earned $16.15 an hour despite having worked in the industry for 17 years.
‘‘Current pay rates in no way reflect how stressful and emotionally draining this important work often is,’’ Ms Baddeley said.
