Press Release – PSA With funding confirmed in Budget 2021, home and community support workers will soon be paid their normal hourly rate while driving from one client to another. Until now, this essential health workforce was only paid the minimum wage for in between …
With funding confirmed in Budget 2021, home and community support workers will soon be paid their normal hourly rate while driving from one client to another.
Until now, this essential health workforce was only paid the minimum wage for ‘in between travel time’. Before 2015 they didn’t get a cent. Now there’s $81.822 million locked in to fund fair, consistently paid travel-for-work over the next four years.
Date Time
Support workers “can’t stop smiling”: Budget funds properly paid breaks & travel time
With funding confirmed in Budget 2021, home and community support workers will soon be paid their normal hourly rate while driving from one client to another.
Until now, this essential health workforce was only paid the minimum wage for ‘in between travel time’. Before 2015 they didn’t get a cent. Now there’s $81.822 million locked in to fund fair, consistently paid travel-for-work over the next four years.
Two unions represent support workers, the Public Service Association and E tū. Members of both organisations are celebrating the news, but they’re also reflecting on the long-haul campaign it took.
“I wish that we could have got to that point earlier rather than going through the whole process of striking.” The deal provides funds for extra bereavement and sick leave and there’s also a commitment to increase guaranteed hours, which had fallen so low workers said they struggled to “live decent lives”. Taufa said she hoped this marked the beginning of a more transparent relationship between Lifewise and its employees, where issues could be discussed in the open.
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Lifewise homecare support worker and E tū delegate Helen Taufa says the long fight was worth it. Union director Kirsty McCully said bereavement leave was especially important to the workforce, who were largely in their 50s and at a stage of life where bereavements weren’t uncommon.
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