Northland care workers across multiple sectors rally for equal pay

Members from the NZ Nurses Organisation, PSA and E tū unions protest in Whangārei's Cameron St Mall on Monday. Photo / Michael Cunningham.

Overworked and underpaid Northland care workers took their plight for pay parity with their district health board counterparts to downtown Whangārei.

A rally in Cameron St Mall was part of a nationwide campaign where care workers – aged care, disability, mental health and addiction and home support staff - raised awareness and collected signatures for a petition highlighting their need for a wage increase.

Employees spoke about not having enough money for petrol in the car or to put food on the table after paying other bills.

One care worker, Gail - not her real name - says working in the sector can be hard but the people they care for become more like whanau than clients, so she carries on as she doesn't want to let them down.

Gail has the same level of qualifications as a DHB counterpart, but at the moment gets about $2 an hour less. She feels undervalued as the sector faces increasing problems in attracting and retaining staff.

In fact, Gail says, if she could afford to leave the job she loves she would resign and go for the same job in the DHB, but there were no guarantees so she had to stay.

She said aged care assistants were dedicated workers who genuinely cared for, and built connections with, the people they were caring for and their families.

''They really become like our whanau. We see them every day and some of them are in our care for months or years so you build up those connections. I see them more than my own family at times. Then you can't just leave (at the end of your shift) if they are in difficulty, you have to stay and help them.''

But she doesn't get overtime and she feels her employers rely on their dedication and connections to the clients.

In the job, she has faced verbal and physical abuse from some clients. Gail often goes home at the end of her shift feeling she is not paid enough for the difficulties she can face in the job.

She wants pay parity with DHB aged care workers and recognition from the Government for the job they do - ''and a wage I can live on.''

Gail said Covid had made the job even harder, especially during lockdowns when rest homes did not allow visitors.

''Families couldn't' come in to see them so we were there for them all the time. Now we've got staff and patients with Covid, and that is making things even worse.''

Northland NZNO organiser Odette Shaw said the aged care workers did not take industrial action lightly, but they were falling further and further behind their DHB counterparts.

She said the DHB settlement, once ratified, would pay their aged care workers almost $2 an hour more, and they were feeling totally undervalued by their employers.

Shaw said care workers developed a unique relationship with the people they looked after, many of whom were under a worker's care for months or years.

The workers want the Equal Pay legislation - settled in 2017 - renewed and the pay rates improved, so that the gains and improvements for more than 65,000 care workers nationwide - including up to 500 in Northland - are not lost.

This is needed, the unions say, so the sector can keep skilled, trained experienced workers who provide care and support for some of the country's most vulnerable people, and to attract new people to the sector.