Aged care workers are set to receive a substantial pay rise, after a decision handed down by the Fair Work Commission confirmed a 15% rise for the industry.
The decision, handed down by the Commission on Friday, comes more than 18 months after a Royal Commission report was presented, which recommended a 25% increase for aged care workers.
The timing of the wage increase will be discussed later this month, with the FWC taking submissions from the federal government and employers and government before handing down stages two and three of its decision.
The FWC said in its decision, which spanned more than 300 pages, that work in feminized industries had traditionally been undervalued.
“We accept the evidence that, as a general proposition, work in feminised industries, including care work, has historically been undervalued and that the reason for this undervaluation is likely to be gender-based,” they said in the your decision
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the “welcome” announcement would help close the gender pay gap.
“We have to recognize that … it’s a lot of the feminized industries, aged care, early learning, disability care that are dominated by women where women don’t have the same power to bargaining than other sectors of the workforce,” he told reporters. the Sunshine Coast.
“That’s one of the reasons why wages have slowed down.”
The federal government set aside an unspecified figure in the budget’s contingency reserve to pay for the increase.
Pressed to outline exactly how much he anticipates the budget will have to pay to pay for the increase, Albanese said he would not say until the FWC makes its final decision.
“We don’t declare it, that’s why it’s called a contingency (reserve),” he said.
Last month’s budget forecast that federal spending on aged care services would rise 50 percent to $34.7 billion between the previous fiscal year and 2025-26, reflecting growth in improving the ‘residential care for the elderly.
In its interim report, the commission said it will continue to consider some workers in the sector getting a bigger raise.
“We want to make it clear that this does not conclude our consideration of the union’s demand for a 25 percent increase for other employees, namely administrative and support and care for the elderly,” said.
“Nor are we suggesting that the interim 15% increase necessarily exhausts the scope of the increase justified on labor value grounds with respect to direct care workers.”
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott seized on the announcement, using it against a push for multi-employer bargaining.
“This victory for government, unions and the community calls into question the need for sweeping changes to Australia’s bargaining laws,” he said.
“What won’t deliver pay rises for Australians is an even more complex bargaining system that opens the door to industrial chaos, strikes and disruption.”
The Albanian government wants to legislate the changes, which would make it easier for workers from different employers in a sector to bargain collectively by the end of the year.