Page 1398 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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The first is that the aged-care sector must have its own portable scheme covering residential and home care and that the aged sector scheme not be subsumed into the current community services sector portable long service leave scheme. I note that Mr Smyth also raised this issue in a speech in April. Should this occur, it would mean a separate scheme would not be able to access the economies of scale already presented in the community sector arrangements. This would add extra administrative costs to the stand-alone scheme, as scheme administration costs are currently apportioned across all four portable long service leave schemes. Additionally, this would limit people with overlapping skill sets—for example disability carers—from transferring their skills between aged care and disability care, even when working for the same company, which may provide both of those services.
Another request was that pro rata access to long service leave should be granted to employees after seven years service as per existing legislation, and not after five as per the current portable schemes. The existing community sector scheme arrangements allow for employees to access pro rata long service leave entitlements after five years of service. The other schemes vary. To ensure consistency in entitlement arrangements within the community sector scheme, these provisions will also apply to the aged-care sector. Several other issues were raised for which explanation was given, but I do not have time to go into the detail of those at the moment.
I have gone over the technical aspects of the bill and what it will achieve. I am now going to speak about why achieving these outcomes is so important. Aged-care and waste workers work hard. Aged-care workers take care of some of our most vulnerable citizens, and a lot of this work involves, as we have heard, heavy lifting, cleaning and unsociable and long hours, not to mention the emotional impact of working with people who are sick or in pain with whom a relationship is also formed. In addition, aged-care workers make on average $43,000 per year for this difficult and tiring work.
Having a good work-life balance can be challenging for many people, and this is one of the key factors which impact on health and quality of life. Providing an extended break from this work once every five years is really important. I want the workforce in the ACT to be happy and healthy, and this bill helps to move towards that goal.
In regards to aged-care work, this is an industry which is not seen as a particularly desirable career path for many people in our community. I can understand why this might be the case: the low pay, the hard physical work, the often emotional work and the undesirable hours worked. Indeed, many employers and industry groups have expressed the difficulty experienced in attracting people to work in the field. At a time when our population is ageing at a very fast pace, this industry needs to be able to build its employee numbers more than ever.
The provision of portable long service leave will provide an additional incentive for people to enter the industry with the promise of a paid four-week break for every five years worked. As Mr Smyth put it in April, Madam Speaker, aged care is a big issue and the workforce demands on aged care will grow. Indeed they will, and this measure will help to incentivise growth in the workforce.
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