Claud Switzer Residential Care workers will strike today to retain pay conditions. Photo / Supplied
A battle for wage equity will see staff from a local rest home go on strike today following a breakdown in negotiations over penalty rates.
Kaitaia's Claud Switzer Residential Care health and domestic staff will walk off the job this morning from 8am-9am and on Saturday, October 30 from 8am-10am.
The strike action comes after months of negotiating between E Tū union and Claud Switzer, who are yet to agree on a Living Wage ($22.75) for domestic staff.
E Tū is also asking for staff to retain weekend and night shift allowances, who allegedly stand to lose up to $3000 per year as part of the proposed new individual employment agreement.
Healthcare and domestic workers currently receive an extra $5 per hour on the weekend or a max of $40 per shift.
E Tū Northland coordinator Annie Tothill said in terms of national rest home allowances statistics, Claud Switzer sits at the middle of the spectrum.
Tothill claimed the rest home was asking staff to accept a pay cut to fund building improvements and they refused.
She said staff would find it hard to continue working if their allowances were stripped.
"We have been trying to achieve a settlement with Claud Switzer since April this year, but keep getting offered only partial agreements," Tothill said.
"The staff can barely afford to pay for their own homes and will struggle if forced to pay for the homes of others in this way."
Tothill said a strike was originally planned prior to the recent Covid-19 lockdown and Claud Switzer had received two weeks notice to arrange care for residents.
She said staff had expressed staffing shortages on weekends was already an issue and losing weekend allowances would only make it worse.
"Our staff live, work, and spend their incomes in this community and we believe they already make a valuable contribution to the special care of residents," Tothill said.
"They are worth every dollar paid to them and any reduction in pay is not justified or fair.
"Removing weekend allowances will leave the employer struggling to attract staff to work weekends which is said to already be a struggle.
"The staff don't like being forced to take strike action, but feel it's better than risking ongoing short-staffed weekends, which puts both workers and residents at risk."
Claud Switzer Residential Care chief executive officer Tina Mills said the strike was 'unbelievable' and that union staff members had designed the strike to cause maximum disruption for residents.
"This is when they [residents] are starting their day and are in greatest need of care and assistance which we are legally and morally obliged to provide," Mills said.
"This is unbelievable, especially coming from people who are employed in this profession."
According to Mills, the rest home was continuing to negotiate with the union in good faith and had been doing so for some time.
She said she would have preferred the union continue to communicate with her as opposed to having residents impacted by the strike action, especially in the middle of a pandemic.
"No one wants to see a return to the days where elderly people in this community have to leave the Far North to receive the care they need, but that might prove to be the only option," Mills warned.
"This home is not corporate-owned and does not have access to the resources that many aged care facilities in this country do.
"It is run by a charitable trust in co-operation with the community and every precious dollar must be used in the most appropriate way.
"Our ongoing negotiations with staff are by no means designed to reduce their income or to penalise them in any way.
"We simply need to find a fair, equitable, sustainable formula and the threat of strike action does nothing to change the realities that are facing this trust and its community."
According to E Tū, 95 per cent of staff voted in a secret ballot to take strike action.
The next strike will occur outside the Claud Switzer Residential Care Home on Saturday, October 30 from 8am-10am (pending negotiations).