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Winter 2004

Howard's Shame

Aged care. It’s sure to become the biggest black mark on John Howard’s Government for the history writers.

Today, aged care in Tasmania is a scandal and no politician's spin will change the picture. Cracks are opening up in care standards, and members are cracking trying to keep it together.

Across Australia aged care is under the microscope, as many providers cut corners trying to squeeze out a few more dollars in profits or just keep within a budget. Nowhere is worse than Tasmania, where we have the highest proportion of aged people in Australia.

The system is currently being propped up by the tireless and dedicated work of HACSU members. But workers are fed up with spiraling workloads and a system that is breeding bullying and threatening workers' health. Workers continue on, despite their wages being held down by John Howard's refusal to adequately fund services.

We watch in frustration as billions of dollars of taxpayers' money is thrown at marginal seat voters and government advertisements, whilst ageing Tasmanians languish in under-staffed nursing homes.

There's even tax cuts for households where the breadwinners are bringing in joint incomes of $110,000 annually, but the Howard Government opposes proper safety net increases for aged care workers.

In this feature, we look at what is really going on in Tasmania's nursing homes.

We look at the impact on staff and residents. Hard facts, analysing care hours per resident down to the minute, staffing workloads and outputs, and we have two real life case studies at Rosary Gardens and Umina Park.

Aged care in Tasmania
Umina Park - Two steps forward, one step back

It was only three years ago that the Umina Park Nursing Home nearly went under, a crisis that caused a great deal of upset and anxiety for staff, residents and their families in the North West of Tasmania.

The situation was rescued largely through the efforts of HACSU members, who kept things going and provided the ideas and stability for restructuring despite a dreadfully stressful time.

HACSU members, in a great show of solidarity got together and negotiated a way through.

There was an enormous amount of goodwill towards the workforce from the community for what was done to save the facility.
But today, pressure is again building on workers at Umina Park.

Some managers with budget pressures are again trying to put pressure on workers, playing favourites, using shift allocations as punishments, and bullying.

It's a sign of a system that operates like a pressure cooker, and at the moment the whistling has reached a scream again.

A recent meeting of HACSU members was called, and a fair bit of steam was let off.

Umina Park members want their Worksite Committee to be properly recognised and want some respect shown towards workers.

Members believe they are being emotionally blackmailed, blamed and used as the butt-end of the funding crisis.

As one HACSU member put it at the meeting "Management, whenever we ask for something, just say 'Look we are here for the residents'. That's their one response to everything."

"It's a great big wall they put up and it is a red herring. It stops issues being addressed."

"For God sake, we know we are here for the residents.

We walk in here with the residents on our heart every single day."

"But we also want some of the problems fixed up. We want to be treated with respect."

"The ridiculous thing is that the people who are saying we are here for the residents, they hardly ever have any contact with the residents. The residents wouldn't even know what these managers look like or who they are."

"I don't think the CEO actually knows how we get treated by some of the managers."

HACSU members have called for a meeting with the CEO to address the issues of intimidation and harassment, in an endeavour to establish a more harmonious workplace.

Hail the Heroes of Rosary Gardens

There's a wall of sound coming from the Rosary Gardens kitchen. A rapid-fire clatter of plates, pots, pans and cutlery loud enough to pretty much make talking useless. There's no time for chit-chat anyway.

Listening to the din, you can hear the tension, determination, resignation, and as a pot is banged on the sink, the anger of the workers.

These workers are doing it tough. Caught in the middle of John Howard's aged care funding policies.

They are Tasmanian heroes. The way they keep going at it, never giving up, believing in what they are doing for older Tasmanians for low pay, is a credit to them.

The Rosary Gardens workers have just been through yet another restructure; restructure number...well, most people have lost count. But everyone knows staff are being stretched further than an AFL footballer's hamstring.

In the short time the workers give the HACSU journalist (whilst they work) a glass gets knocked over as staff grab at it to get it washed. Staff collide, weave and swerve around tables as they dash back and forward.

Eating time isn't kick back and enjoy it time. It's served, gobbled and gone. If you wanted more, well who can remember Oliver Twist?

A resident needs some assistance to find her way after her meal. She gets a pointer only, and then loses her way. She's trying to get through the kitchen doorway.

Now there's a dangerous spot to be with a walking frame! She's again redirected. No time to guide her. Staff are obviously under huge pressure to deal with residents quickly, whilst they move on to the next thing.

They are already behind. We snatch a minute with Ruth Greenwood, a catering worker and member of the HACSU Worksite Committee.

"It's very stressful," Ruth says. "Everyone is fearful of losing their job."

"After the restructure, everyone wanted to give it 100%, to say that we gave it a go. But the workload is just horrific."

"People won't be able to work at this pace for 12 months."

"The new manager in our area is very open and honest and we are happy with him. But I don't know what he will be able to do about the workload."

"It's a 100 miles an hour a day, every day, for $98 a day."

Ruth's got to dash. Our 60 seconds are up, and she's further behind.

The HACSU Organiser, Craig Stringer, comments on what a trooper Ruth is.

"She's so loyal to them and she works just so hard," Craig says.

"The work's already affected her health once."

Craig says the good thing is that despite Ruth still working flat chat when she's there, "...she now doesn't come in an hour before time and work back an hour after doing unpaid overtime."

"But still, if she keeps going at it that hard, something will have to give."

Glen Hunt, an ECA and member of the Worksite Committee, believes things are at breaking point. And says it is really important that members don't work themselves into the ground.

"People are trying very hard to make it work," Glen says.

"I think there is real problems with care hours People should only work the set hours. If things are not done, the employer needs to know extra hours are required."

To counter the negative effects of the restructure on HACSU members' health, HACSU has invoked a clause in the Tasmanian Workplace OH&S Act, which requires a risk assessment to be done following workplace change.

The idea is to identify and have a good look at the risks involved to the changes with work practices.

HACSU is currently working with management to select a consultant to look at the issues in all work areas.

The employer initially indicated they wanted the insurance company to select a consultant, but HACSU wants an expert in this field to undertake the risk assessment.

There's a lot to work through.

But these are measures born out of desperation.

The real problem is the Federal funding.

The massive cutbacks by the Howard Government in the early years of their Government and the mean fisted policies ever since, are now having a terribly harsh effect on aged care workers Australia-wide, but in Tasmania, with our ageing population, the effect is at it
worst.

In the private aged care for profit sector, with such a tight financial environment, the number one budget item is staff. The only way to make a profit is to screw the workforce down. Keep staff numbers low and wages low.

The more you want to make, the harder you push staff.

For workers, there are only two things we can do.

1. Don't let Little Johhny Howard get back in.
2. Stand together, making sure everyone is in the union to maximize our bargaining strength and make sure no one gets targeted.