There is no doubt that support workers in the healthcare sector are underpaid and undervalued. And considering the importance of the work they do, it makes absolutely no sense to me.
Carer support workers who work for Ministry of Health contracted, taxpayer funded, healthcare-providing companies travel from home to home and assist those with disabilities, injuries or the elderly with their day-to-day activities. This not only improves the quality of life for said people, but for their families too, especially for those such as myself living at home with their parents as their primary caregivers. Then of course there is the growing number of people with disabilities who prefer to have the independence of flatting.
This quality of life would be impossible if it weren’t for the support workers whose job is centred purely on making sure a group of often forgotten people are able to live the best possible life they can under their circumstances.
In light of recent events surrounding the ridiculous wage for age-care support workers, I wanted to bring attention to the system of pay other support workers who work in the community are subject to, because not only are they paid next to nothing, the system of pay is beyond unreasonable.
Basically, their hours have to be signed off by their clients and they get paid for how many hours they worked. While that makes complete sense, it’s not exactly a fair pay system. Any hospitalisation, which of course medical issues make us more susceptible to, means workers can’t get paid for that time. And since these medical issues are the reasons we need this service in the first place, it makes this system all the more disheartening.
To fully encompass how damaging this is to their livelihoods, we have to take into account the situation of the majority of these workers, besides the obvious structural sexism at play here since most of them are women. I have 3 support workers and all 3 of them are single mothers with rent to pay and mouths to feed. How exactly are they supposed to do this if they are denied their pay for reasons outside of human control?
When I speak to my support workers, they talk about how the somewhat flexible nature of their work allows them to be with their children before and after school, which is every parent’s right. But as well as this, they talk about how much they love their job and the importance and value they place on the work that they do. This is the common narrative of all healthcare workers, including nurses and caregivers in rest homes.
My personal conclusion from this overall situation is that it’s a case of corporations taking advantage of society’s most vulnerable. Knowing that those with disabilities and the elderly cannot live a good quality of life without this service coupled with the fact that there are people whose personal situations makes this arrangement a convenient one for their preferred lifestyle makes it easy to rip them off. This makes it easy to ensure they are denied a decent wage with a reasonable pay system, and it disgusts me.
I totally agree with your article the workers in this industry are being ripped off.I wonder when the announcements of how much wages have risen each year reflect how much the already high paid have large increases while caregivers and other similar paid workers enjoy nothing (or next to)The average wage in NZ is 28$ an hour( I think). I doubt that the average caregiver gets even 66% of this .Some how I think, sadly, that their average may well be closer to half of the “average” wage. As a society we should be ashamed of this.Is it really New Zealand that we are talking about?
My health is such that I need part time care. I get it for free from my wife. If I were single, my life expectancy would probably go down quite a bit. I can appreciate what the care is worth, and it’s a lot more than 66% of $28 per hour. I don’t know how long I’d be able to pay for it, and I agree that it’s become another trough for the corporates. This is an area where I’m only just learning the details, and what I’ve seen so far isn’t good. As my health deteriorates, I’ll make more noise. Terminally ill of the world unite! We have nothing to lose.
Do your caregivers get travelling time and vehicle running costs as well as their hourly pay? Or bus fares, if they don’t own private transport?
My sister did care work for an agency and she was expected to carry those costs, plus provide the vehicle and a cell phone so she could be on call.
She enjoyed her clients, yet could no longer afford to carry the agency by providing free-to-them transport and contact.
If DHBs provide those basics to their care workers then it needs to be the minimum for all in the sector – and it’s time regulations caught up with the great ‘for free’ market.
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