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A majority of aged care workers across five large aged care facilities have voted to go on strike due to ongoing anger about the treatment of workers and aged care residents, poor wage increases, and continued workforce shortage.
It is expected that if there is no change to the conditions in aged care industrial action will be taken before the Federal Election, which will be the first time aged care workers have ever taken national strike action to express their frustration about pay rates and inadequate staffing levels.
The United Workers Union (UWU), union for working people including aged care, says that thousands of aged care staff have warned their providers that unless they address the continuing understaffing issues, there will be strike action.
UWU Aged Care Director, Carolyn Smith, says that aged care workers are being "forced to take unprecedented strike action" because of the ongoing issues in aged care that are yet to be resolved.
"Aged care workers are beside themselves with fatigue and they are emotionally exhausted by the distressed residents they see every single day," explains Ms Smith.
"Aged care workers know the Federal Government has failed them in the vaccination rollout, failed them with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and failed them in the Omicron outbreak, when 900 aged care residents died, so they are holding their employers accountable.
“Across these major providers residents are being left without basic needs being met, they are left soiled for extended periods and they are at risk of falls when left unattended.
“In addition, aged care workers face pay levels so low they can barely afford the petrol to get to work and outrageously heavy workloads mean a majority of aged care workers are thinking about resigning for good."
The current industrial action that has been endorsed so far, by aged care workers across five aged care providers in South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, would allow for "indefinite stoppages" as well as other industrial measures.
Votes are still being conducted at three other aged care facilities in Western Australia and South Australia.
Ms Smith says there are still details to be organised with aged care workers about what industrial action will be taken over the next coming days, however, she says employers should not "underestimate the level of anger after years of neglect of aged care workers and their residents".
The recent Federal Budget provided $10.1 billion in funding over the next year and an additional $462.3 million for the aged care reform plan, which was a response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
Many aged care bodies and organisations were disappointed with the omission of pay increases for aged care workers, which was the main problem that the sector wanted to see fixed in this year's Budget.
The Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC), representing six aged care peak bodies, was pushing for an aged care worker pay increase to help improve workforce shortages and to show respect to the hard-working staff. However, that request was never addressed in the Budget.
Just before the Budget was released, the AACC unveiled a study that found that the wages of aged care workers were barely covering the cost of living.
Paul Sadler, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) and AACC spokesperson, said after the Budget that the Government had missed the mark for aged care.
"Deeply disappointing in terms of the workforce, the failure to address the wages of aged care workers - how long is it going to take before a Government actually gets round to getting justice for the workers!" says Mr Sadler.
"From the point of view of the provider organisations of ACSA and the AACC, we cannot compete in the broader marketplace for workers. We really run the risk of losing our current experienced workers to other areas that can pay better. And obviously, we will struggle to recruit new staff if we can't be competitive from a wage point of view.
"The constant putting off of the day Government is going to have to do this is really, really disappointing."
While the likelihood of a strike is high, the Union says it will work with aged care providers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of residents are still met, and providers will be notified in advance of when the strike will occur and what actions will be taken.