The staffing crisis in the aged care sector has only deteriorated since the Royal Commission, unions have warned, with new legislation – including a code of conduct and pre-employment screening – not up to the task of addressing it.
Speaking at a Senate committee hearing into new legislation arising from the Royal Commission, Carolyn Smith (pictured), aged care director at the United Workers Union (UWU), said the legislation does not address serious issues confronting workers, such as pay; burnout; low work hours; and attracting, training, and keeping new employees.
“Talking about screening without thinking about all those other issues, without thinking about wages and without thinking about how burnt out and exhausted the current workforce are, is problematic.
“I find it very problematic that that's the first piece of legislation we're dealing with around quality of care,” she said.
According to Ms Smith, the staffing crisis, far from improving, is now “at an all-time high”.
“Literally, any facility you walk into around Australia will have shifts unfilled. That relates to worldwide issues around migration and staffing but it also relates to wages and understaffing. I would say these issues are key to quality,” she said.
Ms Smith also slammed the screening process as “very light on detail”, with nothing in it about cost; she pointed out that aged care workers are among the lowest paid in the country.
“What we see from the recent workforce census is that casualisation has grown significantly in the workforce. It's four times higher, I think.
“The cost of the registration, the screening process, should not be a barrier. The lack of information about what processes workers are going to have, to challenge any decision or any order, is really worrying,” she said.
The Health Services Union has backed up UWU’s stance, with aged care and disabilities manager Lauren Hutchins saying the bill is “light in substance and in detail”, which poses problems for a tired and fatigued workforce.
“We have an opportunity to rethink and revalue the aged care workforce, but we must do it right. With the holes in the legislation, the ‘we will wait until later to give you the detail’ – it is hugely problematic,” she said.
Aside from the code of conduct and pre-screening, the legislation includes provisions to extend serious incident reporting to home and flexible care, and imposes new governance requirements on approved providers.
