- The Guardian
- Issue #2154
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has lodged a dispute in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) over aged care provider Bupa’s new plans to cut staffing hours in its residential nursing homes across the country.
Bupa is changing the rosters for nurses and direct care workers, which includes cuts to rostered staffing hours, shift lengths and shift times, particularly night and weekend shifts – all without consulting the ANMF or its members or explaining the care impact on residents. To date, Bupa has refused to provide the ANMF with the proposed new rosters.
Federal Secretary Annie Butler said the ANMF was extremely concerned the staff cuts would compromise the working conditions of nurses and carers and in turn, pose a serious risk to the provision of safe, quality care for Bupa’s aged care residents.
“We know that Bupa has been failing to meet the government’s mandated care minutes in most of its facilities, yet it’s now trying to reduce the rostered hours of frontline staff. It’s totally unacceptable and will put even more pressure on nurses and carers already struggling with excessive workloads,” Butler said.
“Our members working in Bupa facilities have lost weekend shifts, which some have been working for years and have been reliant on to support their families. And Bupa have yet to tell us why they’re cutting weekend shifts or the impact on the care provided to residents.
“Bupa is also proposing hybrid new role roles such as ‘Wellbeing Carer,’ ‘Care Companion,’ and ‘Care Therapist’ – we have a right to know what they are and what they will do and whether they will impact vital direct care needs of residents. Or whether this is just another ‘try-on’ from a big for-profit provider, already caught-out reclassifying staff roles to manipulate care minutes?
“It’s appalling that Bupa is pushing ahead with these major cuts to rosters without transparency, proper process or adequately consulting their staff. We’re calling on Bupa to stop the introduction of the new rosters and enter into meaningful discussions with the ANMF – for the sake of our members and the people they care for.”
PARASITE(S) OF THE WEEK: are the profit-gouging owners of Australia’s aged care system. Aged care workers have delivered a damning verdict about the real situation facing aged care residents inside aged care facilities.
Using their own star ratings system, 1,000 reports of aged care workers have highlighted dangerously low staffing levels they are witnessing.
More than 82% rated their aged care facilities as only one or two stars out of five on staffing, in findings contained in the Aged Care Watch Quality Snapshot.
The verdict of aged care workers differs sharply from the self-reporting of staffing levels made by aged care providers, where the most recent average rating is three stars or an “acceptable” level of staffing across the whole sector.
However, the 1,000 reports from aged care workers, at an average of 1.8 stars on staffing, sit well below the federal government’s rating of acceptable levels of staffing.
The low ratings across more than 200 facilities in every state and territory in Australia indicate fundamental issues in providers meeting 215 minute-a-day ‘care-time minute’ targets set by the federal government.
Care-time minute targets are a key reform recommended by the Aged Care Royal Commission to address the neglect of residents occurring through rampant understaffing.
The findings in the report were obtained through Safe Staffing reports filed by aged care workers since mid-April through United Workers’ Union’s online transparency tool, Aged Care Watch.
Using the online tool, aged care workers have delivered insights that would be otherwise hidden from the public, providing clear signs providers are exaggerating their performance when reporting care-time minutes.
