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Summer 2006

Aged Care Campaign Kicks Off

The HACSU campaigning team has been visiting aged care sites around the State over the last few months as part of a new aged care campaign, under the banner: ‘Aged Care Workers Deserve Respect’. The ‘Respect’ campaign centres on the new aged care common law contract, which seeks to protect aged care workers from the Federal Government’s new industrial relations legislation.

Under the new laws, workers stand to lose rights such as the ability to pursue an unfair dismissal case, as well as long standing entitlements like penalty rates and overtime pay.

The common law contract is a legal document signed between HACSU and employers aimed at protecting employees' entitlements as they stood under the old IR system. It incorporates old entitlements stripped from awards under the new system (like union training leave and right of entry for union officials), and includes the award conditions that decide employees' pay and conditions.

HACSU intends to pursue a common law contract across the aged care industry to protect as many of our members as possible from the new anti worker laws.

The campaign team has been running a PowerPoint presentation to explain to workers what the campaign seeks to achieve and to encourage members to become actively involved in the campaign.

Carmen Evans, who has worked as an Extended Care Assistant (ECA) at Ningana Aged Care in Sorell for several years, recently attended one of the campaign team's presentations. She explained why she thinks the industry wide campaign is a good idea, "We're worried about the new laws. The majority of us work weekends to make it worthwhile, so we are really concerned about the possibility of losing our penalty rates. I think working together with other aged care workplaces is the way to go. We can all stick together and get things resolved more quickly."

If you would like more information about the aged care campaign, or if you would like to become an aged care campaign supporter, contact your local campaign team member:

South: Tania Rogers and Sharon Doherty, Ph: 6231 2253
North and North-West: Kylie James and Paul Quinn, Ph: 6331 2237