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ISTOCK / Supplied
The care workers will strike for hours and leave.
Home support workers are preparing to strike for three days for hours and the right to leave.
Approximately 90 care workers employed by Lifewise Trust in Auckland will be leaving work as of Tuesday morning.
They want more guaranteed hours and better bereavement and sick leave, after negotiations that have lasted more than 18 months have not resulted in a collective agreement.
The workers are members of the E Tū union. Union director Kirsty McCully said the lack of guaranteed hours leaves workers with “poverty wages.”
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“Since zero-hour contracts were banned, the number of hours these workers work has decreased,” he said, meaning that their take-home pay has decreased even as wages have increased.
Lifewise is an Auckland-based community social development organization employing support workers to care for the elderly and people with disabilities for the Auckland District Board of Health.
“Lifewise does great work in the community and they say they stand up for social justice, but there is a double standard at Lifewise when their own workforce of home care workers cannot afford to lead a decent life,” said the social worker and Etū Delegate Helen Taufa said.
Lifewise had accepted some additional sick and bereavement leave but backed out of the deal after the Covid shutdowns, McCully said.
He said that with just the minimum of five sick days, workers sometimes felt pressured to go to work when they were not “100 percent well,” but were concerned about putting their vulnerable clients at risk.
Until now, Lifewise had declined to come to the table to discuss license fees and guaranteed hours, he said.
The lengthy negotiation has left workers feeling “disrespected,” he said.
“It’s a shame to have to draw attention to an organization that otherwise does a good job, but Lifewise, if it really supports justice for the community, it should first put its own house in order and stop contributing to these social problems of poverty and inequality ”.
McCully said it was an issue of equity for women and, to a large extent, Pasifika’s workforce.
In December, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner, Saunoamaali’i Dr. Karanina Sumeo, launched an investigation into the low wages of Pacific workers.
E Tū has invited Sumeo to meet with Lifewise home care workers, McCully said.
A Lifewise spokesperson said that “as Lifewise is communicating with E Tū in good faith and due to the confidentiality of the discussions, we are not in a position to comment at this time.”
