Media Release

22 February 2006

Mandatory staffing levels and skills mix: not mandatory reporting

The ANF today called for the introduction of mandatory staffing levels and skills mix in aged care facilities.

‘There is an almost universal tendency in aged care for employers to employ care workers rather than nurses to reduce costs,’ ANF federal secretary Jill Iliffe said.

Care workers are an essential and valuable part of the workforce in aged care. However they are not being adequately supported or supervised because there are not enough nurses employed to do so.

It is impossible for the few nurses who are employed to provide that supervision and support but do their own work as well.

The ANF rejects the myth propagated by aged care employers that nurses do not want to work in aged care.

‘If they paid nurses a decent wage they would have greater success,’ Ms Iliffe said. ‘Currently the wage differential between a nurse in V ictoria that works in the public sector and a nurse who works in the aged care sector is $256.20, if you are relying on the award, or $113.09 if you are lucky enough to be on a collective agreement.

Aged care employers were given an additional $877.8 million in the 2004/2005 federal budget to ‘pay competitive wages’ but very little if any of that has found its way into the pay packets of nurses and care workers in aged care.

The ANF, representing 145,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses in Australia.

Media inquiries
Jill Iliffe, Federal Secretary 0419 576 590
Ged Kearney, Assistant Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
Lani Stanistreet, Manager Communication & Journals 0414 471 339