Who cares for carers? These folks

Jenefer Wright and Jeremy Younger feel uncomfortable that Selwyn Village staff wages are so low. Photo / Nick Reed

Selwyn Village residents are leading the charge to try to get the staff who look after them a living wage

Street parking was hard to find near Pt Chevalier School one night last week ahead of a meeting in the hall. On the agenda: securing the Living Wage for the caregiving and service staff of nearby Selwyn Village.

The campaign, spearheaded by a few of the village residents, and vigorously supported by unions, Christian social justice organisations and the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa, had been on my radar for a while, not least because of a family connection: the village was the brainchild of my grandfather.

The Rev Jasper Calder, who died in 1956, was the first Auckland City Missioner, and although he had retired by the time Selwyn was established - his successor Douglas Caswell was at the helm by then - he is credited on the Selwyn Foundation's website with having "realised ... that some of Auckland's elderly were living in squalid and destitute conditions [and wanting] to do something about it".

Selwyn, 60 last year, is now the hub of a retirement-industry empire, which comprises six sites from Whangarei to Hamilton. But most of the 120 people in the school hall meeting took the view that Selwyn's success is built on the backs of domestic staff who are paid between $14.75 (the minimum wage) and $17.97 an hour.

They urged the foundation to pay the Living Wage of $19.25. This figure, arrived at by number-crunching that works on bare minimums in all areas of life, is defined as enough money to provide the basic necessities for workers and their families to "live with dignity and to participate as active citizens in society".

It was a spirited affair. The hall was festooned with banners of the various supporting organisations, though the workers kept a low profile; some said they had been warned by foundation management not to speak out.

But a pre-recorded and anonymous three spoke of lives in which the concept of a holiday was foreign; in which they lived with relatives because their meagre income covered only food costs; in which, working weekends and public holidays to boost their pay, they missed out on the family life they were working to sustain.

Former Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor, who went undercover to toil alongside low-paid workers while preparing her 2012 report Caring Counts, told the meeting the employment conditions in the aged-care sector were "modern-day slavery" and called on Selwyn to "take a leadership role in a Christian way".

Later, resident and Anglican minister Jeremy Younger spoke movingly of how Selwyn's Christian heritage meant "taking seriously the idea of Christian love" and remembering that Christ was always on the side of the poor.

A couple of residents in the front row harrumphed after the meeting that it "had no mandate" from residents - an odd comment, since parties to wage bargaining do not typically seek the support of businesses' customers. Certainly, they didn't take kindly to my asking why they thought their permission was required.

Selwyn residents were indeed thin on the ground, but that was hardly surprising: it was a cold night and the meeting wasn't at the village.

What's more, several had reportedly been frightened by what they saw as a veiled threat from village management to their tenure because they had signalled their support. Living Wage convenor Annie Newman said some residents had "felt that their ability to express themselves had been deeply undermined".

The other conspicuous absences - empty, labelled chairs were put out for them - were of anyone representing Selwyn. The foundation's chief executive Garry Smith told me later the fact they were in the middle of wage negotiations made it inappropriate to attend. He added that he was disappointed that Selwyn had been singled out when it was part of an industry in which pay rates were very similar.

Smith told me Selwyn was "very mindful of its roots" and its mission to "look after the vulnerable". When I suggested the vulnerable might include minimum-wage workers, too, he reminded me that the foundation's constitution very clearly specified "vulnerable elderly".

I couldn't help thinking that today's elderly were very different from the ones Jasper had worried about. The first baby boomers, turning 70 this year, are relatively affluent.

Among them is Jenefer Wright, one of the campaign's organisers, who remarks that Selwyn residents lead privileged lives, but she would feel "uncomfortable and morally compromised" if workers caring for her earned less than a living wage.

I couldn't help thinking that Jasper would have agreed.