Trevor’s posted on this today, but I wanted to add my own comments. I just spent the afternoon shadowing a caregiver at the Kingswood Centre in Northcote, a vocational services centre run by IDEA Services. Other Labour colleagues have been doing this at other venues today, as part of the SFWU and PSA’s “Up Where We Belong” campaign to highlight the low pay of the more than 100,000 caregivers throughout New Zealand.
I met Judy, who has worked in intellectual disability services for 31 years. Her centre has a busy week mapped out for the service users with a full programme of activities, learning and fun for people with a range of intellectual disabilities. This is no “sheltered workshop” as they used to be called. This is a place where caring and dedicated staff help make the lives of the people they care for the best they can be. Each service user has their own individual plan, with goals that they have had a say in developing. They have their favourite activity; many of them have reading and writing skills, and others can sign or communicate through symbols taught to them by the caregivers.
There was no sadness in this place. Only joy brought by the dedication of people like Judy, who didn’t complain to me about her pay, but I wouldn’t expect people like Judy to do so. She observed that she was probably worse off than she used to be because the Employment Contracts Act took away many of the add-ons. She did note that most caregivers are mainly women, so her work tends to be more undervalued.
I want Judy to keep caring for these people. I want her to be paid what she’s worth. It will take more government funding because that’s how these services are paid for. This is not about profit, or greed, or business or anything else. It’s about treating those who care for the people in our community who need more support a whole lot better than we’ve been doing. I want to see Judy up where she belongs.
Darien that’s all very well and good but you are never going to be able to pay Judy what she’s worth as you can’t value her work how you want it to be valued. You will say it is priceless, in which case $100k per annum or $200k won’t cover it.
“She did note that most caregivers are mainly women, so her work tends to be more undervalued”.
No, being women is not the reason they are undervalued, it’s because they are caring for people who cannot afford to pay for that care. If they were looking after a billionaire with Alzheimers they would be paid much more.
Judy has a choice whether to work in that line of work or not. She is paid what she will work for ie. the market rate for the Labour.
So lets start with the premise that you can value her work the way you want it to be valued (ie. higher).
Darien, how much would you pay her?
Did you explain to Judy that her wages are so low and her tax is so high because Labour prefers to pay beneficiaries like Natasha Fuller twice what she earns?
Does the thought of Judy cleaning human excrement for fifty hours a week while Natasha sits in front of her wide-screen television doing nothing fill you with revolutionary pride and zeal Fenton?
Hold the chorus of the International.
Labour values beneficiaries that breed further burdens upon society. Judy is a victim of Labour’s social engineering agenda, just like the rest of decent, law-abiding, tax-paying New Zealand.
For gods sake, Darien, you are no longer a union organiser. You are an MP. Start behaving like one, please, or give us the money back.
These miserable people [Jennifer and Cactus Kate] who have blogged have no idea. Actually Jennifer an MP is supposed to advocate for people. That is their job. Darien thank goodness we have MP’s like you in the House who actually care about those in the lower paid jobs such as this. Any one of us could have had a child who needed care at Idea Services and thanks goodness we did not. But let’s celebrate the workers who dedicate their lives to help and not just concentrate on the dollars and cents they can get out of it. And good on you Darien for trying as best you can while you are in Parliament to ensure such lowly paid workers get some recognition for their services to humanity. And they do not expect a royal title for it.
I will answer the question Kate asked Darien – $41k to $51k is the range they would get if they did an equivalent job in a prison.
Trevor
It is not an equivalent job is it? If Judy wants to go and work in a prison then good on her….go do it. She doesn’t. So it’s comparing apples with pears. And we all know pears taste better.
Madas
I am not miserable. Judy’s pay is. I don’t work as a caregiver because I don’t have to. Do I think their work is particularly pleasant? Hell no. But it is what it is.
I don’t accept the argument that the market will fix everything and if disability support workers don’t like what they are paid they should go and get a job somewhere else.
Unfortunately support workers are not selling cabbages or serving meals in a restaurant. They are looking after very vulnerable people who society has accepted, despite their impairments, should have the opportunity to live an ordinary life.
This requires skilled support workers who are paid enough to make sure that they do stay in the job and are able to give the sort of consistent care and support that people with disabilities require.
Simon Says “Achtung”!
That sort of talk – “beneficiaries that breed further burdens upon society” and “Labour’s social engineering agenda” – sounds like something out of 1930’s Germany. Facism was dead, and hundreds of thousands gave their lives to help stamp it out. Let’s keep it that way! Whatever became of compassion and looking after those less fortunate than oneself?
Good on you, Darien, for walking a day in the life of a worker who has dedicated more than 30 years to enriching the lives of people with diasabilities! I was there today with Darien and Judy and saw how the community service workers empowered the people in the centre. One was proud to be the fire warden and told Darien about his role in protecting the health and safety of his fellow “service users”. Another told me that Helen Clark had gone to New York to work for the UN. Judy and her fellow workers love their work looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society, along with children and our elders. But like those in childcare and aged care, their pay is pathetic. In no way does it relate to the true value of their work. They should be paid what they ae worth!
The comparison to working in a prison is ridiculous – it just shows how out of tough you are.
Putting wages aside – would you be happy with your wife working as a caregiver?
Would you be more worried if she worked in a max security prison with inmates?
Thats why prison workers earn more.
John Ryall raises an interesting point – that this kind of work simply can’t be effectively managed by “the market”. The market would have probably thrown the disabled out onto the streets to fend for themselves by begging or stealing.
So let’s forget about “the market” in this case. Of course it’s difficult to work out what this kind of work is worth, but it’s probably fair to say that the difficult in finding enough people to work in the sector is a sign that the pay probably isn’t high enough. Wasn’t that the primary justification for raising nurses’ pay?
Michael Moores’ film SiCKO has a security video of that happening. Can’t pay? No insurance? Out you go.
I suggest that Bikerkiwi volunteers to work in a residential home for people with intellectual disability and to look at the skills required by the support workers. This will soon reveal why one of the comparators for wage rates is prison officers.
Support workers are regularly having to defend themselves from assault or unpredictable challenging behaviour from service users who are often physically bigger than they are.
Would you be more worried that your wife was a prison officer rather than a support worker? Yeah right!
I get depressed at the attitude of the likes of bikerkiwi, Cactus kate and jenniefer who begrudge every single cent that Judy earns, and who want the poor chucked out on thr streets.
It is with attitudes like this which will see New Zealand become a not so nice place to live in for years to come.
If I could afford the subs (Im up to my eyeballs in debt and bill and dont have much cash for luxuries), I would join Labour, and fight to ensure increased purchasing power for people like Judy.
Next time Labour is in govt in 2011 or earlier I hope you tackle the disastrous 1990s competitive contracting model which is largely to blame for the low pay of these workers. The Ministry of Health pays out contracting organisations over $20 per hour for many of these workers but the worker only gets the minimum wage. The contracting model means the provider organisers have to build their own bureaucracies to be in a position to bid for and maintain the complex contracting arrangements. And many of these businesses, particularly in the aged care sector, have their first loyalties to their overseas shareholders. So taxpayer funds are going straight to shareholders or to sustain private businesses instead of to NZ workers. If there was a centralised and regulated disability and aged care workforce there would be a lot more money to go directly to the workers.
Hilary is not correct. Neither the Aged Care funding, through the District Health Boards, nor the Disability Support funding, through the Ministry of Health, is driven by competitive tendering.
It is driven by how much the Government allocates, although the difficulty for the workers is that their employer clips the ticket on the way through and they end up with 3/8ths of bugger all.
Labour Minister of Health Pete Hodgson tried to target the funding to lift the wage rates of caregivers and support workers but got done over by the Aged Care residential providers in the courts.
An incoming Labour Government will have to look at a better system than this.
John, I suppose I am talking more about under 65 respite services, home and community support services and behaviour support services etc where there definitely is competitive tendering.
Pathways to Partnership was started by the last Labour government as a way to encourage organisations to work together in return for a grant, and that was a great model, unfortunately now stopped.
Hilary, I realise that there are differing prices paid to providers for these services but I wouldn’t describe this as competitive tendering.
With the small providers, in particular, it is more based on what the funder can get away with.
There needs to be urgent action on a Transparent Funding Model that spans all the services in the disability support sector. It has been talked about for over 10 years, and although at least one provider has a TPM, it has never eventuated across the disability sector because the Government has always run away from the cost of it.
Yes I agree that the Transparent Funding Model is urgent. I suspect that we are talking about slightly different things re competitive tendering – but not disagreeing.
A Disabilty Support workers lot is hard slog, they are caregiver, cook, cleaner,driver,assist with shopping,plan holidays,administer medication,support at Dr’s dentists etc work mostly split shift through the evening, nights and weekends for lousy pay. Come on support the campaign to value people with Intellectual disabilities and their staff to get a better financial deal.
Having worked for Corrections and in the disability sector at times I can say the roles can be very similar. These dedicated support workers provide all the care that one would expect a loving parent to give. They play parent, cook, cleaner, teacher and have hearts of gold. I applaud these MP’s that took the time to walk in the shoes of these workers who are undervalued. Most New Zealanders have no idea what is involved on a daily basis in terms of caring for these people. Dig deep and give more funding and realistic wages to these special individuals who choose to take these caring roles.